ProductWatch: Autoprint’s Checkmate 50 inspector

With more than 70 installations, Autoprint Machinery's Checkmate 50 remains a standout product. Alongside the newly introduced UV coating machine, the Checkmate 50 will take centre stage at Drupa.

07 May 2024 | By Aditya Ghosalkar

The Checkmate 50 will take the centre stage for Autoprint Machinery at Drupa in hall 6 at stall C51.

Launched in 2016, the Checkmate 50 is a carton inspection machine. It compares the cartons to be inspected with master cartons, which are selected as per the acceptance level of the customer. It then segregates good and rejected cartons.

Autoprint's managing director CN Ashok says that the Checkmate 50 integrates software algorithms to enable the machine to detect even the smallest printing defects. “It easily detects ink smudges, spots, scratches, uneven ink, colour variation, foil stamping variation, hazing, missing print or characters, filled-in characters, misregistration, and other minute flaws and irregularities.”

The device comprises comprehensive hardware including a feeder unit, camera inspection system, pneumatic ejection system, ultrasonic double sheet detector, vacuum belt and simple operator-friendly software front end paired with a complex algorithm-driven back end. Three cameras deployed in the machine help identify defects such as ink smudges, spots, scratches, uneven ink, colour variation, foil stamping variation, hazing, missing the print/character, filled-in character, and misregistration.

The machine can run at a speed of 250-m/min, and inspect 80,000 cartons at 300-m/min. It primarily caters for pharma and FMCG applications, with a carton height of 140-mm.

Several machine features include a fail-proof pneumatic ejection system, a bottom-feeding system with a vibrator, special scratch and cluster detection, archiving of defective print images, curved conveyor for collecting rejected cartons.

The easy-to-use software also features automatic brightness correction inspection capability being a highlight.

Most of the companies have installed multiple machines with Parksons Packaging topping the list with five installations. Rich Offset (four), Laxmi Packaging (two), and Award Packaging (two) are some of the other printers with multiple installations.

Other customers include Any Graphics, Budhiraja Packaging, Essentra, Kumar Printers, Meera Offset, Noble Printing Press, Param Packaging, Paramount Art Print, Pragati Pack, Pravesha Industries, Printmann Offset, Sapco (Shree Arun Packaging), TCPL, Velpack and Yamir Packaging among others. Autoprint has also recently completed installations at three major Malaysian packaging companies.

Technical specifications

Max. Size of Carton: 400mm x 500mm
Min. Size of Carton: 100mm x 100mm
Carton Thickness: 180 to 450 gsm
Speed Max: 300 m/min – up to 80,000 cartons/hr
Camera: Three
Top Camera C1: 4k colour for checking printing defects
Top camera C2: 4k black and white for checking foil and embossing defects
Bottom Camera C3: 4k black and white for bottom side defects like dead insects, stains