Printing Industries of America has announced that the QuadTech Color Control and Web Inspection System with AccuCam is a recipient of its prestigious InterTech Technology Award. Since 1978, the award has “honored the development of technologies predicted to have a major impact on the graphic communications and related industries.”

According to Dr. Mark Bohan, Vice President, Technology and Research at Printing Industries of America, “The judges were impressed with the system’s ability to control color and provide automatic water control to minimize scumming in newspapers. As one of the judges said: ‘I wish I had this in the past. It would have made my life so much easier!’ Color control without color bars is the future. This eliminates waste and enhances the visual appearance of print.”

The AccuCam system provides fully automatic closed-loop color control by controlling the ink-key settings. An image-based system, AccuCam eliminates the need for unsightly gray bars or color bars. Using pre-press image files to create L*a*b* target aim point values, its proprietary six-channel spectral sensor measures the printed web and calculates the L*a*b* values of the entire image. Then the system brings the printed image to the specified target values and automatically maintains the color quality throughout the production run.

Besides advanced image-based color control, the system also provides reliable warnings of many common printing faults such as catch up (scumming), creasing, transposed plates, and tramlines. Recent research and development efforts have resulted in a new AccuCam water control capability, in which the system monitors and controls press damping levels.

Requirements for the award include testimonials from users of the technology who will comment on its performance in a production setting. Recommendations for AccuCam were made by Mr. Mark Ellington (Group Technical Services Director, Newsprinters), Mr. Ulrich Müller (Technical Director, Herold Druck), and Mr. Toru Uesaka, (Director, Production Bureau,The Sankei Shimbun).

Karl Fritchen, President of QuadTech, comments: “We’re honored to receive this recognition from Printing Industries of America. Our AccuCam technology is the result of close development partnerships with some of the most advanced printers in the world. And of course, congratulations are due to our product development team at QuadTech, who are second to none when it comes to technology innovation in the print industry.”

Vince Balistrieri, QuadTech Director of Engineering and GM of Commercial & Newspaper adds: “The AccuCam system has a proven track record of reducing waste and delivering consistent quality. Our development partnerships will help us to continue adding more features and capabilities—further strengthening printers’ ability to grow and increase profit margins. We’re very excited about what AccuCam can do for newspaper and retail insert printers throughout the world.”