QuadTech acquires print-inspection systems provider Vigitek

-- Converting Magazine, 5/8/2008

Press-controls supplier QuadTech, Inc., purchases Vigitek, a designer and manufacturer of 100-percent print-inspection technology, on May 1. The acquisition strengthens print quality solutions for printers and converters in the packaging industry by bringing together QuadTech’s advanced register guidance system with Vigitek’s state-of-the-art print defect detection technology, QuadTech says.

Vigitek will operate as a subsidiary of QuadTech, and will continue to function as its own entity.

“We're excited to combine our companies’ products and know-how to benefit the packaging industry worldwide,” says Karl Fritchen, president of QuadTech. “Vigitek excels at continuous defect detection across the entire press web. QuadTech excels at register controls."

Vigitek, based in Limerick, Ireland, was a pioneer of the technology that inspects 100 percent of the web 100 percent of the time. Its systems are fully compatible with all types of printing (gravure, flexo, web offset, sheetfed, label and corrugated) and in all types of configurations–roll-to-roll, roll-to-sheet and sheet-to-sheet. Features of Vigitek’s solution include a linescan system that uses high-resolution 3CCD cameras with optical prism and custom software that runs extremely complex detection algorithms. Separate processors are dedicated to tasks such as image capture, image analysis and data logging, giving the system robust and reliable computing power.