Extended features of the ganging wizard

The ganging wizard was intended to give solutions for sheetfed labels with or without shapes or pack­aging or 3D boxes. Originally a link with 3th party prepress software was set up to provide an impo­sition for the print sheets.

In case, ganging is not allowed or not possible, only die cut tools with one shape are possible. Even if multiple labels with the same shape have to be printed, there will be a print sheet per label.

The "No prepress Tool" option was introduced to have a simple low-cost solution for the use case of labels with shapes, using an existing die cut tool. The printing will take over the layout of the die cut tool. So there is no additional expensive imposition software needed.

The wizard is now also able to provide solutions for sheetfed labels with or without shapes and pack­aging in case of "No prepress tool". There are of course limitations, compared to the possibilities of the prepress tools like Signa, Tilia Labs, …

These use cases do not use a die cutting tool but have normal guillotine cutting. The imposition for printing therefor cannot be based on the layout of a tool. The system can however provide simple solutions, in case there is no nesting. This means that the poses on the printing sheet are rectangles, that are not overlapping.

Note: For commercial print this wizard opens up possibilities to quickly calculate plano fold­ing sheets with multiple versions that do not need collecting or general finishings.

Product Type Properties

Some properties of the product type are important in this context:

PBM explorer > Production > Product types > Sheets > Properties > General

The ganging wizard reacts different for the type "sheet" and for the type "sheet with shape" or "3d-cartons".

PBM explorer > Production > Product types > Sheets > Properties > Production

(1) Here you can define whether ganging is allowed or not.
(2) Split in versions / Position layout after job job copy - Automatic splitting in print sheets accord­ing to versions - has to be selected.

PBM explorer > Parameters > General parameters > Calculation and production
> Production standard configuration > Ganging

The Prepress tool has to be "None".

The ganging wizard is now able to provide a solution not only for products with shapes, but also for sheetfed labels without shapes.

1. Example:

Creating a new estimate with ganging - Sheetfed labels without shape.

The newly provided solutions in the ganging wizard can be demonstrated in 2 use cases:
the sizes of the labels are the same or if they are different.

•the labels have equal sizes

•calculation with a product type that allows ganging

Multiple papers can be chosen. The system will present a solution for each paper.

The system creates print sheets, according to the cheapest production method with a fixed paper size. Then the split in print sheets is applied and the version pose linking is done.

(1) Both selected papers have been calculated and are available.

2. Example:

The labels have equal sizes and a product type that does not allow ganging.

PBM explorer > Production > Product types > Sheets > Production

Most of the workflow is equal to the previous one, expect that the splitting in versions is applied with the "no ganging" option.

In this example, only one paper is selected.

For each label, a separate print sheet is created.

3. Example:

Calculation with a product type that allows ganging and labels with different sizes.

Multiple papers can still be selected. But at this moment the system can only handle one paper. Later on in this document it will be clear that in this use case only one solution can be provided.

A gang sheet will be created. For each version a gang part is added to the gang sheet.
The user can make the imposition and add or delete poses on the sheet by dragging the poses.

The print sheet will have the waste coming for the press settings. The color-bar on top and the gripper at the bottom. Also the side-margins left and right are added.

The automatic positioning has a very simple algorithm to start with:

•Calculate the maximum size in the X- and Y-direction and calculate the maximum number of poses on the sheet.

•Determine the number of poses per label depending on the amount requested.

•Place the poses on the sheet in order of descending surface.

The wizard now shows 2 tabs on top. One for the Prinect Business Manager gangsheet designer and one for the calculation overview.

Example 4:

Calculation labels with different sizes with a product type that allows no ganging of versions.
Multiple papers are possible.

The system will create a normal print sheet per label with its specific sizes, according to the cheapest production method with a fixed paper size. Each sheet has only one version on it.