Offset Printing Plate Quality Sensor on a Low-Cost Processor

• Main Authors: Francisco Tirado, Manuel P. Matías, Sanja Mahović Poljaček, Carlos García, Guillermo Botella, Jelena Poljak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2013-10-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: offset printing; embedded systems; low cost sensor; computer vision; ARM; Raspberry Pi
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/13/11/14277

The aim of this work is to develop a microprocessor-based sensor that measures the quality of the offset printing plate through the introduction of different image analysis applications. The main features of the presented system are the low cost, the low amount of power consumption, its modularity and easy integration with other industrial modules for printing plates, and its robustness against noise environments. For the sake of clarity, a viability analysis of previous software is presented through different strategies, based on dynamic histogram and Hough transform. This paper provides performance and scalability data compared with existing costly commercial devices. Furthermore, a general overview of quality control possibilities for printing plates is presented and could be useful to a system where such controls are regularly conducted.