Ink feed control in a web-fed offset printing press

Abstract

Automatic and robust ink feed control in a web-fed offset printing press is the objective of this work. To achieve this goal an integrating controller and a multiple neural models-based controller are combined. The neural networks-based printing process models are built and updated automatically without any interaction from the user. The multiple models-based controller is superior to the integrating controller as the process is running in the training region of the models. However, the multiple models-based controller may run into generalisation problems if the process starts operating in a new part of the input space. Such situations are automatically detected and the integrating controller temporary takes over the process control. The developed control configuration has successfully been used to automatically control the ink feed in the web-fed offset printing press according to the target amount of ink. Use of the developed tools led to higher print quality and lower ink and paper waste.