McCormick Place, Chicago — MAN Roland is bringing the advantages of computer integrated manufacturing to life in its Graph Expo exhibit (#1017), partnering with several other top industry innovators in a JDF-workflow demonstration called CIMcity. Occupying the lion’s share of the MAN Roland pavilion, CIMcity puts a complete printing facility on the Graph Expo showfloor. The prototype plant features the latest advancements from EFI, Creo, MAN Roland, MBO and Muller Martini. All of the innovations are working together in a JDF-networked workflow, driven by a printnet digital backbone provided by ppi Media, a MAN Roland subsidiary. Visitors to CIMcity can see the workflow in digital form at the exhibit’s Integration Center, which will feature workstations running the live JDF links of each participating manufacturer. The array will provide them with a real time perspective of how jobs are moving through the CIMcity network. CIMcity’s Management Information System (MIS) — EFI’s Hagen OA — is also at work and on display in the Integration Center. The system is based on an open architecture, utilizing the world's most advanced database schemas and development tools. Hagen is cross-platform, utilizing a familiar Windows interface with browser-based applications for data collection, production monitoring and fulfillment. Its capabilities include: Estimating and quoting Order entry Job planning specifications Job costing Inventory management Fulfillment Loading and Scheduling Shop floor data collection Browser-based data collection Production Desktop - remote production monitoring Billing and receivables Budgeted hourly rates Sales analysis Purchasing AP and General Ledger Financial reporting Multi-divisional accounting Standard and custom reporting Joining Hagen OA in the Integration Center is Creo’s Synapse Link. The software automates the exchange of data between print production systems and the Hagen MIS in CIMcity. Using open standards such as JDF, Synapse Link provides immediate access to production data, so printers can accurately record and communicate production data, such as prepress events, machine time and material usage, into the MIS. Integrated Innovations After viewing the workflow in virtual form, CIMcity citizens can visit the show floor to see the actual production equipment in action. The featured systems include: Prinergy from Creo delivers an elegant and complete prepress workflow management tool that organizes page processing, proofing, CTF, and CTP. The software uses Job Tickets to carry processing instructions through the system. These process plans can be linked together as production templates (workflow plans) to create automated prepress workflows. Creo’s Magnus very large format (VLF) CTP device produces quality imaging with repeatability, reliability, improved functionality, and increased speed for large commercial and packaging printers. The Magnus VLF is the fastest fully-automated VLF platesetter on the market, imaging fifteen 80.7 x 59.4 in. plates per hour at 2400 dpi. When smaller plates are loaded two at a time, the Magnus VLF images thirty-one 28 x 39.3 in. plates per hour at 2400 dpi. The ROLAND 700, MAN Roland’s full-size, 41-inch press, is CIMcity’s print engine. The press features a long list of productivity enhancements and in-line processing options at Graph Expo 2004, including an increased standard top production rate of 16,000 sheets per hour. Several other new press enhancements that are premiering in North America will demonstrate the interoperability of the CIMcity model. The six-color ROLAND 700 integrates a dual coating module into its design. Other product launches include: a digitally controlled inline sheeter, an Eagle Eye inline full-speed quality control, an inline sorter that provides a second delivery, the QuickChange makeready accelerator, and the Prindor inline foiler. All are features that make printing more productive on the 41-inch machine and enable printers to add new applications to their agenda. Controlling QuickChange and connecting the press to the CIMcity workflow is MAN Roland’s PECOM operating and automation system. MAN Roland introduced the graphic arts industry to Computer Integrated Manufacturing with PECOM. Now the system is automating hundreds of printing facilities around the world, and is advancing CIM significantly further with its integration into printnet, as demonstrated in CIMcity. MBO’s Perfection is the first marble-less buckle plate folder. Conventional guide marbles in its cross carrier guides are replaced with conical wheels to provide higher performance, more precise register, and mark-free results in all sections of the folder. A vacuum infeed/alignment system ensures flat and flawless feeding and precise register. Meanwhile, patented spiral fold rollers, and an exclusive belt drive system add to the system’s productivity. Other special features include a dual paper transfer system for smooth, gapless sheet transfer, and combination buckle plates with Dial Deflectors that make changing sizes from job to job quick and easy. Antistatic plates are also incorporated to reduce the effects of static electricity. And Rapidset, a computerized makeready system, utilizes motorized buckle plates that can be adjusted automatically via job ticket commands. MBO’s JDF integration software is called Datamanager. BravoPlus Amrys from Muller Martini automates the most time-consuming task in the bindery — setting up the stitcher between jobs. Using Amrys (automatic makeready) technology, printers can drastically reduce their set-up routines, so that their bindery can produce more in less time and at less cost. In operation, BravoPlus Amrys… - Offers CIP4/JDF interface for downloading job parameters directly from a facility’s MIS or prepress system, utilizing Muller Martini’s open digital architecture. - Uses servo drives to automatically and simultaneously set the feeders, stitcher, trimmer and stacker. The result: fast and accurate makereadies. - Automatically can fine-tune all size settings at the touch of a button while the machine is in production. - Allows operators to save and retrieve all job parameters for repeat and split runs via touch screen. BravoPlus AMRYS stores on-the-fly changes, so every repeat run will be perfect from start to finish. Muller Martini’s JDF integration software is called JobExplorer. With this newly developed CIP4/JDF interface, everything the saddle stitcher needs to know about the project is supplied directly from the digital job ticket. That saves additional time and virtually eliminates the possibility of input errors. The CIMcity Workflow Each CIMcity demo at Graph Expo starts with the description of the product to be manufactured, entered into Hagen O/A. It, in turn, transfers detailed order information to be incorporated into the JDF data tree. printnet’s Production Planning System (PPS) then adds machine assignments, starting and finishing times and other parameters into the JDF data tree. printnet is also responsible for ensuring the trouble-free execution of the JDF workflow. Selected data are directly transferred to the production management systems like Creo SynapseLink/Prinergy, PECOM, MBO Datamanager and Muller Martini JobExplorer. The objective here is to exclusively use intelligent automation so that little or no user intervention is required. Via the Job Messaging Format (JMF), each device communicates its status back to the printnet system as individual processes are carried out. When production is complete, printnet feeds back a file containing all data generated during production. The numbers can be used for cost accounting, reporting and statistics. The feedback can also serve as a template to make it easier to produce repeat or similar jobs. “While other manufacturers talk about the possibilities offered by JDF, MAN Roland, ppi Media, and our other CIMcity partners are running real jobs on real JDF workflows,” says Christian Cerfontaine, Director of Marketing at MAN Roland. “Printers who visit our exhibit can see for themselves how JDF lets facilities select the best solutions in each area of production for their individual businesses. That will reward them with the full benefit of computer integrated manufacturing.”