At Landa, the digital printing revolution is not just about putting ink on paper. It’s also about how the press looks and how operators interact with it. To borrow from Steve Jobs, “Design is how it “prints.”
Ultimately, Landa’s objective is to bring to market a new printing process that delivers what brands and consumers need, but deliver it in a package that would make a Landa press almost an extension of its operator – a totally intuitive, highly efficient and profit-driving system.
Out of a whole raft of innovations and technologies assembled to create a Landa press, and specifically the Landa S10 Nanographic Printing® Press, the Landa Cockpit is probably the most noticeable. It’s usually the first thing that draws Landa visitors when they see the press in operation at our headquarters in Rehovot, Israel.
The Landa Cockpit is fulfilment of Benny Landa’s vision for press operator experience for the 21st century. It is a command and control centre of the whole automated Landa Nanographic Printing® Press system. Leveraging the best ideas from our smartphone and tablet age, the designers – led by Benny – designed an intuitive and easy to operate environment with the contemporary tech-savvy, touchscreen user very much in mind.
In addition to job management and press controls, the Landa Cockpit provides maintenance and support functions, along with full communications and connectivity with Landa engineers at the call centre in Israel.
Two large touchscreens are positioned on either side of the adjustable work bench, flanking video screens showing live or recorded video streams from key areas inside the press. One touchscreen is devoted to showing the workflow of the press, the jobs to be produced during the shift and data required for any last-minute adjustments or corrections made by the operator.
The Digital Front End (DFE) is also controlled from this screen and shows the link between the DFE and the Automatic Quality Management (AQM) system. Developed by Landa with AVT, Techkon and EFI, AQM is a fully automatic solution that scans each printed sheet, identifies defects (e.g., color consistency, print uniformity, registration, missing nozzles, etc.) and initiates corrective action where applicable – all without any operator intervention.
The other touch screen shows schematic representations of the various press functions including scheduled and break-fix maintenance alerts and guidance, with an ability to be customised by the operator. Indeed, the GUI uses easily recognisable language agnostic icons, which can be customised by operators to look very different from shift-to-shift, reflecting their individual personalities.
Landa Digital Printing’s Operator Experience Revolution
Landa has developed a high level of production automation on the Landa S10 Nanographic Printing® Press, resulting in much less operator intervention than a conventional offset press. Landa has also developed a comprehensive education programme for operators ahead of factory based tuition, beginning with remote interactive and modular off site training. To ensure that they acquire the necessary skills quickly and easily, operators will be fully supported each step of the way, with the ability to learn at their own pace at home and then followed by hands on experience in the Landa factory.
In going the extra mile for customers, the Landa training team has also developed a Nanographic Recruitment Guide, designed to help customers streamline the Landa operator recruitment process and minimize the risk of investing in the wrong candidate.
Whilst offset press skills and experience of current pre-press systems, workflow and engineering are all beneficial for a Landa Nanographic Printing® Press operator, the high level of press automation, coupled with Landa’s comprehensive training programme and the intuitive Landa Cockpit, will make operating this press one of the easiest tasks on the factory floor.
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