Module 5 - Software

Introduction

This module describes which software packages are available and what their purpose
is. For the most installed / used software packages, extended explanations are given
including installation notes and basic troubleshooting.

Overview of software

Primary used software packages are:

KMS
PDM
PCC
K-Station
PDC-S or PDC-SII
PDC-Lite or PDC-LiteII

Secondary used software packages are:

PCC-Assistant
PCC-curve edit
K-Station viewer
K-Colormatch Pro
K-Color Profiler

Because most of the software have different purposes, a short summary is given about
them below:

KMS (Komori Management System)

- Local (press)
- Task 1: job management for a single press, sending to and saving from
- Task 2: reporting or time registration
- Task 3: maintenance guide
- Task 4: error history
- Note: direct communication with PQC (RS-422)

PDM (PQC Data Management)

- Local (press)
- Task 1: job management for a single press, sending to and saving from
- Task 2: reporting or time registration
- Note: limited version of KMS with less possibilities. It only allowed to install
this at presses with PQC-U and older presses.
- Note: direct communication with PQC (RS-422)
PCC (PQC CIP Communicator)
- Central (PrePress)
- Task 1: convert PrePress data (PPF-files) into Komori ink-profiles (PQ4-files)
- Task 2: generate preview images from PPF-files
- Task 3: fully automatic conversion (no user intervention necessary)
- Note: multiple presses can be supplied from one installation of PCC
- Note: each press must be set up as a template
- Note: in general, communication with Windows network

K-Station (Komori Station)

- Central (Production Management)
- Task 1: remote control and status for multiple Komori presses
- Task 2: same functions as KMS, but remotely
- Task 3: job preparation
- Task 4: statistics of all presses
- Task 5: interface between MIS and Press (JDF and JMF)
- Note: in general, communication via Windows network

PDC-S or PDC-SII (Print Density Controller – Spectral)

- Local (Press)
- Task 1: measure print quality
- Task 2: feedback control after measurement (closed loop controller)
- Task 3: maintain quality
- Note: Photo-spectral measurement: L*a*b and ∆E supported
- Note: Pantone color library included

PDC-Lite or PDC-LiteII (Print Density Controller)

- Local (Press)
- Task 1: measure print quality
- Task 2: feedback control after measurement (closed loop controller)
- Task 3: maintain quality
- Note: only density measurement: no L*a*b and ∆E supported
- Note: Pantone color library NOT INCLUDED

Secondary used software packages are:

PCC-Assistant
- Central (PrePress)
- Task 1: special tool to be used with perfecting or superperfecting presses
- Task 2: works only in combination with PCC
- Task 3: convert two single sided ink-profiles (PQ4) into double sided

PCC-curve edit
- Central (PrePress)
- Task 1: special tool to create and edit ink-curves that are used in PCC
- Task 2: works only in combination with PCC

K-Station viewer
- Workstation (Office)
- Task 1: K-Station with only read possibilities
- Task 2: only reporting and statistics; no job-management

K-Colormatch Pro
- Central (PrePress)
- Color Management
- Task 1: Generate optimal adjustments to print proofs (by proofer) that are
‘matching’ the output of the press
- Note: using ICC-profiles

K-Color Profiler
- Local (Press)
- Color Management
- Task 1: special tool within PDC-SII to measure printed ICC charts to generate ICC
profiles
Extended explanation of primary used software

In this course there is no space to give all details of all software packages. However,
some details of the primary used software packages must be clarified.

KMS

‘Komori Management System’ is the software used by the operator to pick up his new
jobs (as ink-profiles), to send ink-profiles to the PQC and to store modified ink-
profiles from the PQC onto the computer’s harddisk like in an archive.

Furthermore KMS can be used for time-registration (partially automatic) with

reporting functionality, maintenance guide and error history.

Figure: KMS screen for Job management

This course does not include the explanation of how to use KMS. That should be part
of an operational training. This course will concentrate on the configuration and
settings.

Just after installation of KMS, you will be prompted to follow the wizard to configure
the press more easily. Although this wizard is more or less complete, there are always
settings to be made later on. One important setting is the communication port. This
setting is part of the setup of KMS, which is only accessible via the key-combination:
ALT+PRINTSCREEN. On some older versions, also the CTRL key must be pressed.
Figure: setup of KMS, accessible by pressing ALT+PRINTSCREEN

In the setup of KMS you will find 4 tabs:

Maker Setup System settings: press type and communication

PQC Setup Press layout: number of units, number of ink-keys
Paper Size Setup Minimum and maximum paper size
Bit Map Check Check communication with e.g. PLC or PQC as a monitor

As an example we would like to change the communication port. The computer will
be connected to the PQC with a serial cable, using the RS-422 protocol. This means
that the standard serial port of the computer, which is using RS-232, cannot be used.
Instead, using a dedicated extension board (PCI-card) or USB-to-serial-RS422 adapter,
will give you additional COM ports in Windows. The available ports from Windows
can be found in the ‘Device Manager’ of the Windows Control Panel. You will find
very often that the communication port that has been added, is different from the
‘Communication Port Select 1’ in the setup of KMS. For current presses, only the first
selection is used (only one communication line between computer and PQC). After
changing most of the settings, only pressing the ‘JOB’ button let you return to the
normal operator screen. Some changes (press type and communication) require to
restart the KMS program.

Another setting that should be made just after installation, is the location of where to
search for (new) ink-profiles, generated by PCC. These files will be usually stored on
the harddisk of the computer where PCC is installed or on a network location that is
always available. As soon as this is fixed, you must ‘inform’ KMS about it.
Whatever the screen looks like, you can always go the main user menu by .
You will get the screen as below:

By clicking , you will enter the customer settings, including the location
where to search for ink-profiles. This setting is called ‘Job Import Origin’. Click on
the value itself (it will become white and editable) and you can use the browse button
as well.
PDM

Because PDM is a limited version of KMS, no extra explanation is required. The

Maintenance and Errors are missing from the operator screens. This version is only
communicating with the PQC, only transferring ink-profiles, no sheet size (AMR),
time-registration or error history is supported by PDM.

With this software it is possible to integrate older presses and specific new presses in
a digital workflow (CIP3 and CIP4).

Figure: screenshot of PDM user menu. Maintenance, Errors and sheet size are missing
compared to KMS.

PCC

The most used program nowadays is PCC, which is a converting tool for ink-profiles.
Usually the pre-press department is able to create CIP3 data. Currently the file format
PPF is used to transfer data between pre-press and other divisions in a printing shop.
The PPF-file contains the image that is on the offset-plates, and it contains
administrative data like ‘JobCode’, ‘JobName’, ‘SheetName’ and ‘CustomerName’.
This PPF-file can be used for all press manufacturers, because is a standardized
format that is part of CIP3.

Komori can also read PPF-files, however, they cannot be directly send to the press.
The press does not work with the image, but with an ink-profile, that is matching the
image on the plates. To get the ink-profile, the image of the PPF will be used to
calculate how much ink is necessary for each ink-key for each color. This is what
PCC does: converting.

The basic principle of PCC is the following:

PPF-file

Press Template:

- Press model
- Size
- # inkkeys
- # colors
- Colororder
- Preview quality
- Ink set and ratio
- Water set and ratio

PQ4 – inkprofile Preview

In fact, PPF is not the only format that can be handled by PCC. Also TIFF and IS1
files can be converted into ink-profiles.

As it might be clear from the above, the template plays a central role in the conversion.
In the template that is used, you must have the correct settings about press and the
desired output. To create a template, you go to the menu ‘File
Template
New’.

First you need to select a press from the pull-down list under Machine Type. You will
only find the model, but no number of units. You may select P for Perfecting and SP
for SuperPerfecting presses. Please note that Lithrone and Lithrone-S should be
regarded the same, but take care about number of ink-keys.
Figure: create a new template in PCC

The output format will be PQ4 nowadays. The old format, PQ0 is only used for older
presses, without KMS or PDM.

Most LS-presses will be equipped with KHS (Komori Hyper System) on the PQC
itself. If so, then you must select it in the template, otherwise select ‘normal’.

If necessary you can rotate the PPF-file before conversion and under the button ‘PQ4
format Details …’ you can specify to generate a preview that can be used by KMS.

A very important item that should not be forgotten is ‘Unit number’. Fill in the
number of units, including coater units. Then go the options to select the color-order
and type of units.

After completion of the template, you are ready to use it. There are two possibilities to
use PCC:
- Manually
- Automatically
To run it in automatic mode, you need to specify ‘INPUT’-location, ‘OUTPUT’-
location and ‘TEMPLATE’. You can create different templates for different presses,
and you can create different automatic configurations as well. One installation of PCC
is used to do the conversion for ALL Komori presses in a printing shop, fully
automatic.

About the installation of PCC:

It is recommended to install / run PCC on a standalone computer or a computer with

enough available capacity. PPF-files can be large, which may require a lot of RAM
memory in order to operate correctly.

Therefore it is not recommended to run PCC on the same computer as KMS / PDC-
SII, even when there is only one Komori press in the printing shop. Scanning software
(PDC-S / SII) is also using a lot of the computer resources and together with PCC, it
might result in a bad performance of the computer.
K-Station

K-Station is a tool for a production manager to do job-management or statistic

analysis remotely for all Komori presses in a printing shop.

PDC-S or PDC-SII

To measure the quality of the sheets, a measurement system is required. Komori has
its own spectral system, called PDC-S. The system is not manufactured by Komori,
but by X-Rite, including designs or demands by Komori. PDC-S is manufactured up
to IPEX 2006 and afterwards, PDC-SII. Although there are many differences
(hardware and software) there are also many similarities between the two systems.
This course will only concentrate on the newer version, because that is most actual.

The first important item to mention is the communication. The PDC-SII is

communicating with the computer via a network cable. This computer is typically the
same computer as the one where KMS is installed. This means that a dedicated
network card is required, or in other words, a second network card is required while
the first network card is used for the customer network (for example to transfer ink-
profiles between PCC and KMS). Below you can find a basic installation:
  Air hose (vacuum)
 Pump control cable
 Ethernet cable (cross)
 Interface cable
between station and
handheld
 24 VDC power supply
 12 VDC power supply
 3 x power cord

Figure: basic connections for PDC-SII

In the figure above you can find that the communication between the PDC-SII system
and the computer is accomplished via a network cable. The track (station) will have a
fixed IP-address by factory default, which is 172.16.1.100 with subnet 255.255.0.0.
The computer’s second network card should be set to a fixed IP-address as well and
within the same range as the PDC-SII, for example: 172.16.1.101 with subnet
255.255.0.0. Although it is not expected that electrical service people are network
experts, it can be understood easily. If you regard the instrument as building (A) and
the computer’s network card as building (B) then the subnet will be the zip-code of
the area and the IP-address can be regarded as the house-number where the postman
will deliver the mail. In this case: when you have two similar house-numbers within
the same area of the zip-code, the postman cannot deliver. Also, when the house-
number is out of range (not within the zip-code), there is also a problem.

If for some reasons, the IP-addresses will conflict with the customer network, please
contact Komori to get a solution.

To have successful communication between software and hardware, it is required to

disable firewall and virus-protection software or to enable it specifically.

As you might have noticed, also a handheld will come with the system. This is
connected directly to the station, so communication from the computer will go via the
station. No additional hardware is required for the handheld, but notice that it gets
power via the same cable as the communication cable with the station.

Software

Because it is far beyond the scope of this course to give full information about the
operation of the software, this chapter will only concentrate about installation and
testing the system.

During the software installation, also the Microsoft’s SQL server is installed. The
PDC-SII software will save all it’s data within one SQL database. There is no need to
install anything separately.
After the installation of the software, restart of the computer, and installation of the
hardware, you can start the PDC-SII Launcher.

Figure: PDC-SII Launcher

To get the software in another language (available: English, German, French, Spanish,
Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Chinese), it is usually enough to change the regional
setting of Windows. However, it is also possible to change it within a INI file.

Within the Launcher screen, you can find 7 buttons, each of them will start a separate
program.

- Editor
o Editing the settings that are used for measurements
Colorbars
Inks
Paper
- Presstool
o Operator software
Measurements
Job creation
- Reports
o Operator software
Create reports from jobs
- Database admin tool
o Maintenance software
Archiving
Backup / Restore database
Database access
Jobs / Projects removal
- Local Machine Configuration Tool
 o System settings
o System behaviour
- System Configuration Tool
o System settings
o System defaults
- Tool Crib
o Diagnostic Tool
o Calibration and Test
o Network
o Head Replacement

Since we concentrate only on the correct operation and test of the system, we will
focus on Tool Crib.

If you click the button Tool Crib, you will be prompted to enter a password to access
the database. After installation, the password is blanc, so only press the ‘Submit’
button without inputting any password will let you in.

Figure: Tool Crib

Select the device that you want to connect to: pdc-sii

Figure: Tool Crib – make connection to system

Here you will see the IP-address you will connect to, this is the address of the station.
After making the connection, you will see the following screen (or similar):
Figure: Tool Crib – after connected

In this screen it is important that you can see all Firmware versions. In case you have
a row with crosses like “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX” it means that that specific part
is malfunctioning:

DAS Version: Firmware for scanning head, measurement lamp

Station Version: Firmware for docking station
Tracking Version: Firmware for scanning head, blue look-ahead sensor

This is all about the hardware test that is possible at this moment. Furthermore you
can test the operation of the system by doing a white-calibration, which will calibrate
the system based on the white calibration plague, just under the home-position of the
scanning head.

Another test for the performance of the system is to do the Color Reflectance
Reference Card measurement. You received a special test-card inside an envelope,
together with a CD. These three parts are labelled with the same serial number,
forming a test kit.

Figure: Placement of Color Reflectance Reference Card

If the measurement is successfully done, you can view the report. Even, you can do
the measurements also from the handheld just to verify the operation of the handheld,
comparing the values with the values on the envelope.

Important note: this card is only used to verify the system performance, it does not
do any calibration
The only second purpose of this card is to do a paper stop calibration, but this should
only be done when replacing the scanning head.

Measurements

Even without entering into details about the measurements itself, the following
information is important.

The system will measure only colorbars, typically located at the top or bottom of the
printed sheets. In order to perform the measurement correctly, it is important to match
the expected settings (software) with the actual sheet to be measured:

- inks
- paper (paper has a color as well)
- type of colorbar
- location of the colorbar

If there is no correct match between software and actual printed sheet, then the pattern
recognition will not function properly.

Figure: Colorbar must be centered (default)

Closed Loop Controller

One additional part of the software should be installed separately, the software to send
corrections back to the ink-keys. This software is called the Closed-Loop-Controller
or CLC. You can find the software on the PDC-SII cd-rom.

After installation into the same directory as PDC-SII is installed, you must make two
important settings: type of PQC and communication port

The type of PQC should be PQC-S for all new machines except for L-20 and SPICA
machines (they have a PQC-U on top of the delivery).

The communication port is the same as the one that is used for KMS, where ink-
profiles will be send to and from the PQC.
Figure: Closed-Loop-Controller main screen

Figure: Closed-Loop-Controller settings