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What is a Print Simulator

The way it is seen by the Industry Professionals

"The simulator is a diagnostic and training program that utilizes custom-designed software packages to interactively practice problem-solving techniques off-press. Included in the software is a monitoring and cost analysis that allows the training process to correlate effective press utilization versus the theoretical cost on a "live" press."

The objective for printers is to improve the overall utilization of equipment, improve quality of the printed product and increase profitability through the enhanced skills of employees.

Suppliers will benefit by the training of personnel who will interact in the pressrooms of their customers"

Director Trade Association - Flexography



The simulator puts a press (2 color - 8 color) at the user’s fingertips. It operates on standard PCs, using a specialized image manipulation card and two large monitors. One of the monitors displays the press control console, and the second monitor shows the printed result.

The press control monitor contains the controls for infeed and tension, ink and water, speed, cut-off, plate cylinder, dryer temperature. It also lets the operator check the press itself : reel cores, blanket condition, ink tack, fountain temperature, scan cells, nip pressure, tucker blade height, etc.
On the print copy monitor, the operator can view the job in several ways. He can check several pages at time or compare "printed" output to the "proof" copy. The dots can be checked with the magnifier, the folds can be verified, the pinholes counted. The print copy also has a control strip and the operator can use a magnifier or densitometer to check register, gray balance, dot gain, slurring, density, trapping, ...

The simulator is intended to help new printers acquire skills and to help experienced personnel sharpen and extend their existing knowledge. It plays the same sort of role as a flight simulator for pilots. It can be used in two ways: standard or problem-solving.

In the standard mode the press is perfectly adjusted, and only the trainee’s actions will cause problems. This let the operators experiment with temperature and pressure adjusments, see what happens when the viscosity changes or the ribbons advance, etc. It helps them understand the way the press works.

In the problem-solving mode, the trainee will be confronted with unexpected problems and will learn how to analyze them, how to check, what the cause might be, and how to correct the problem.

The powerful scenario generator lets experienced personnel create production problems that will allow anyone in the pressroom, from apprentice to craftsman, to learn problem-solving skills and gain knowledge that will advance his job performance and value.

Simulator users report hat they have greatly reduced the training time for new employees. They also report that they have been able to dramatically increase the confidence and skill levels of current personnel and that this decreases the average make-ready times and increases the percentage of good copies in the press run.

Offset simulators now driven by a real control console NOTE: Each Print process uses different materials and different presses - the simulators model these differences. Consult the different product pages for more details.


  -   Arabic, Finnish, Korean, Japanese now available in Sheetfed Simulator   -   Windows 7 versions of simulators now available   -   London WorldSkills in 2011 to use Sinapse Simulators   -   Denmark and Italy hold Simulation seminars   -   Poland installs 2nd Sheetfed simulator   -   Norwegian Print Association installs first Sheetfed Simulator   -   UPM-Kymmene takes delivery of new generation Heatset simulator   -   TEVTA Egypt installs first 2 simulators   -   BCIT in Canada installs Flexo & Sheetfed Simulator   -   Hunan China adds Flexo & Sheetfed simulators   -   Asian User Meeting in Beijing attended by 6 countries   -   New Finnish installation at Heltech in Helsinki   -   Transcontinental adds Sheetfed simulator to its distance learning package for Mexico   -   Beijing University adds second set of simulators: now has total of 37: Sheetfed, Flexo, Gravure, Heatset   -   CORBPP in Poland adds Flexo simulator   -   Island of La Réunion orders 2nd Sheetfed Simulator   -   Korea, Latin America, Indonesia :new distributors join Sinapse network   -   Pamplona Spain installs Sheetfed simulator Vistaprint Canada installs first SHOTS Sheetfed simulator   -   Jyvaskyla and Metropolia in Finland install SHOTS, Flexo, Heatset   -   AIDO in Spain installs Flexo   -   Toppan installs first SHOTS in Japan – in Japanese   -   Heidelberg North-East Africa installs SHOTS in Egypt and becomes regional distributor   -   PT Gramedia, Indonesia, installs first SHOTS   -   Hungary : 1st Flexo simulator in Budapest   -   Hdm Stutttgart installs 6th simulator, 2nd heatset   -   Le Telegramme signs for multiyear training program with Newspaper Simulator   -   Total Simulators installed now > 1700   -   Supercolor (Italy) installs Sheetfed Simulator   -   RR Donnelley using simulators in 40+ sites   -   UPM now offering simulator-based training courses   -   FTA Training Certificate now available for Flexo Simulator Curriculum   -   Hersant Media installs newspaper simulators at 4+ sites – 3 year extended use contract   -   Flexo and Newspaper Simulators now available in CHINESE   -   Nampak in Nigeria and Shorewood in US still happily using Gravure simulators   -   French Government recommends simulators for all vocational print degree schools-   -   Packaging Gravure Simulator now available in German   -   GATF/Sinapse Training Certificate now available for qualified simulator users   -   Indonesia installs second set of Heatset and Sheetfed simulators – and connects them to press console.   -   Transcontinental now in 5th year of multisite simulator (Heatset/Sheetfed) contract
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