Dispense Vessels on ColorPoint Console

Once in a while we get a support call from a site where the dispense vessel appears to not be recognised. Instead there is a warning icon when you attempt to start a dispense.

This is the wrong vessel on scale icon, and it means that the currently selected dispense vessel parameters do not match what is being read from the scale.

If you are on a site that uses multiple dispense vessel sizes, this is probably something you have seen. The workaround is simple. Go to the vessel selection page and select the vessel capacity that you are using. The currently selected vessel is displayed on the lower left edge of the dispense screen, as shown below:

Something we see less frequently is where the currently selected vessel is blank, as shown below:

In this case there is no currently selected vessel. The last used vessel is remembered across dispense sessions and this does not usually happen.  What can happen is that the only dispense vessel is deleted and there is no dispense vessel to select. Only a level 3 (master) or level 4 (Rexson Engineer) key can used to delete vessels. The delete button is next to the top up button, and will produce a warning to confirm the deletion.

Only after you have answered yes to this prompt will the vessel be deleted. As a precaution, operational dispenses should be made with a level 1 (operator) or 2 (supervisor) key. This will prevent accidental deletion of a vessel.

The next release of ColorPoint Console will prevent a vessel from being deleted when it is the only vessel configured. The delete button will be moved further away from the Top-up button to prevent accidental presses.

If you do find yourself facing this:

Creating a new dispense vessel is a simple task. Press any of the empty buttons to select it. Once highlighted, pressing the button again allows you to edit the button.

The first entry page allows you to enter the capacity of the vessel as maximum weight and maximum volume.

If you regularly work with heavier pigments, you may find that allowing the maximum weight to be higher will allow you to fill the vessel to a higher capacity without reaching an overflow condition.

The next page allows you to set the parameters for an empty vessel. The smaller the range of weights is, the more accurate vessel detection will be when you have multiple vessels.

The final page is for the lid weight and nominal weight. If you don’t book in returns with the lid on, the lid weight doesn’t need to be filled in.

The nominal weight is the expected empty vessel weight. It defaults to half way between the minimum and maximum empty weights, but may be adjusted to suit if required. This is the weight used in overflow calculations.

Pressing the save button save the vessel configuration. Pressing back allows you to return to previous sections to edit the parameters.

Changing a Formulation on ColorPoint Manager

 

When you have made a correction to a formulation, typically on press by adding more of a pigment or another new pigment you can update the formula to reflect this change.

From the menu bar choose Tools | Change Formulation.

In the Change Formulation panel select the formula you will be changing from the drop down list.

Enter the weight of the original dispense you are going to change. This will populate the panel with the weights of the raw materials used.

Now adjust the formula for the quantities added. In this case 0.1kg of 9448 Blue was added by double clicking on the quantity in the added column for the material. The formula is recalculated to reflect this change.

Next 0.05kg of another Red was added. This material was not in the original formulation but is needed to correct the colour.

The formula is recalculated to reflect this change after the Add button is clicked. The change can be made permanent by clicking on the Save button.

Material Replacement

Occasionally it is sometimes necessary to replace all usages of a material within a formula with a new material that is replacing it.  Rather than having to edit all the formulas which contain this material manually ColorPoint Manager contains a material replacement function which allows you to replace a material in either all or selected formulas.

BEFORE YOU START

Before you use the material replacement screen we very strongly advise you to make sure you have a back up of the manager database.  Material replacements cannot be undone so it is important to have a back up you can go back to if you make a mistake.  For more about backing up and making sure you have back ups available please see the entry Backing up your data.  It is also advisable to save any unsaved changes and close any formula windows you may have open.

SAMPLE REPLACEMENT

For this example we will replace a material with the code ‘old’ with a material with the code ‘new’.  First we open up the material replacement screen by selecting ‘Replace Material’ from the Tools menu of ColorPoint Manager.


Next you need to decide whether you wish to replace the material in all formulas or just selected formulas.  As you can see from the screenshot below, the default option is to replace the material in all formulas but if you select the ‘Replace this material in the following formulas’ option you can un-check the formulas where you do not want the selected material to be replaced.


Next you should decide which of the following options you wish to use when replacing the material, as you can see all options are turned on by default.


There are 3 options that you can turn on or off depending on how you want the material to be replaced. The first option ‘Reapportion formulas after replacement’ reapportions formulas back to 100 parts if the total does not equal 100 parts after the material replacement.  This should be kept checked unless your formulas do not total 100 parts. 

The next option ‘Combine Materials’ determines what to do if the material you are replacing the old material with is already present in the formula. When this option is ticked it will add the old materials parts to the existing material.  When it is not checked it will add the new material as separate item (i.e. if that material was in the formula once before it will be put in twice).  This item should only be unchecked if there are some formulas that deliberately contain the same material twice.

The option ‘Replace material in returns’ is very important if you use returns on your site. If this option is not checked then the console will not suggest using any return that contains the old material with the formulas containing the new material.  If the old material and the new material can be used together then you should leave this box checked.

ONE TO ONE REPLACEMENT

For this example we will do a straight one to one replacement of the old material with the new material as this is the most common form of replacement.  Replacing a material with multiple materials will be dealt with in a separate post in the future.  Simple replacement is already the default option so all we need to do is select the replacement material from the drop down and set the material replacement percentage.


The material percentage figure represents how strong the new material is in comparison to old material.  In this example I’m using 100% which means that the new material is the same strength as the old material i.e. if a formula contains the old material at 50 parts it will replace it with the new material at 50 parts.  If for example, the new material is twice as strong as the old material and you only need to use half as much of it then if you set the material percentage to 50 then if the old material uses 50 parts the new material will be added with 25 parts.  At this point all you need to is double check that the correct options and materials are selected and press the ‘Replace’ button and confirm the replacement.

IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG

If you’ve made a mistake when replacing a material or didn’t get the result you wanted then it may still be possible to effectively undo those changes depending on what they were and how your formulas are set up.  If this isn’t the case then it is best to contact Rexson Systems directly and we will either fix the problem or restore from your latest backup.

Backing up your data

 

Data backups are often overlooked. It is vital that you make regular backups of your data to protect against virus infection, hard disk failure and computer theft. All three of these have happened to some our customers at some point.

What do I need to backup?

At a minimum, you need to take a regular backup of the ColorPoint Manager database. the CPM database backup is found in C:\SqlBackup\CPM\. Backing up the most recent file to a USB flash drive ensures that we can recover your system in the event of failure or theft.

The files are date stamped and rotated by the backup scheduler. There should normally be 7 backups named ColorPoint.Manager_Full_date_time.bak. If your computer was switched off when a backup was meant to run (03:00) there may be one or more missing. Ideally you want these backups to be made every day, so if needed contact Rexson support to have the scheduled time changed.

If you look in the backup folder and there are no backups, or the newest ColorPoint Manager backup is older than 1 week old (date format yyyymmdd, e.g. 20110331) please contact Rexson support immediately.

What else should I backup?

If you have other software installed on the ColorPoint Manager PC, e.g. spectrophotometer software, Word, Excel, it will be important to backup those documents too. It is beyond the scope of this article to tell you how to back up the other data on your system. Please check with your IT department and spectrophotometer manufacturer for guidelines on what to backup.

If in doubt it is worth using an external hard disk and using the Windows backup program to perform a full system backup on a regular basis too. As long as the hard disk is as large as, or larger than the hard disk on the PC you will be able to make a full backup.

ColorPoint Manager Reporting

 

Dispense Summary

The dispense summary can be run over a range of dispenses to provide counts and totals as follows:

Dispense count, total press returns issued, neat ink weight, return issue weight, number of dispenses with returns in them, weight of dispensed returns, weight of returns as % of dispensed weight.

 

Simple Formula Sheet

The simple formula sheet provides a simple way to get your formulas into an excel spread sheet for analysis. The report gives the composition of all selected formulas.

 

Job Costing

The job costing report gives a detailed analysis of all inks and returns issued and created in a job. The report can be expanded to include individual materials used. Substrate costs and run length statistics are also taken into account.

 

Simple Design Sheet

The simple design sheet provides a simple way of analysing the coverage and usage factors of multiple designs simultaneously.

 

Design Sheet (Design Estimation)

The design sheet provides a method of creating estimations without having to create a job first. Simply enter the run length required and, provided all of you costing, coverage and usage factors are accurate, you will have an estimation for that design.

 

Usage Reports (Material, Formula, Material Usage By Date)

The material and formula usage reports break down the dispensing history by month. The Material Usage by Date report does the same but allows for custom date ranges to be used where months ends or reporting periods do not correspond to calendar months.

 

Returns Report

The returns report shows the current return stock, with formula code, weight, cost, strength and date created for each return. Scrapped returns are not shown.

 

Return Usage Report

The return usage report allows you to view and compare the creation and use of returns over a number of consecutive periods. The periods supported are, Monthly, Weekly and Custom. Monthly and weekly work to calendar periods. Custom uses the entered date range as a whole and does not split over calendar boundaries.

 

Stock Report

The stock report gives and overview of the total stock levels of each selected material.

 

Stock Valuation Report

The stock valuation report gives a more detailed view of the stock situation. Tick “Include materials with no weight” to see items that have zero or less than zero stock. Tick “Include obsolete materials” to see stock of materials that have been obsoleted and are no longer available for use.

 

Material Batch List

The material batch list gives a more detailed view of the materials in stock. The material batch and serial number details are displayed along with the usable weight of each batch. Finished batches are not shown.

Using Press Returns When Working With Jobs On ColorPoint Console

 

There are a number of ways to work off press returns on CPC. This post outlines the most efficient route when dispensing to jobs.

Select Job Item to Dispense

Go to the jobs screen and navigate to the job required using the navigation buttons on the right side of the screen.

A job consists of one or more job items. Each job item is a formula. The numbers to the right of the formula name indicate how much ink is estimated for this item and in brackets how much has already been issued against the job.

The panel at the left displays the job items on that job. Use the navigation buttons below the job panel to navigate up and down within the list of job items. When you navigate through the job items, a check is made against the returns database for the formula code of the currently selected job item. If a return with the same formula code is present, the “Returns” button will appear on the left side of the screen.

Pressing the “Returns” button will take you the returns database with the list filtered to the current formula code. Here you will be able to see all matching returns. If there are any returns that are a suitable size, you can issue them to press from here directly instead of topping up, remixing or dispensing new ink.

If there are no suitable returns and you need to dispense new ink for your formula press the select button at the top right. This will take you to the dispense screen.

The returns selection process in the dispense screen is more thorough. Once the required weight is known a check is made for any return that can be made into the target formula, not just returns with a matching formula code. If any returns can be recycled, the “Available Returns” button glows red.

To dispense without recycling any returns, just press “Start” or “Top-up” depending on the type of dispense needed.

To recycle returns in the current dispense press the “Available Returns” button.

In the returns screen you are presented with the list of whole returns that can be used. These returns will be fully converted into the target formula with nothing remaining. The advantage of this is that you may use the same vessel as the return is already in and simply top up to the required weight instead of decanting into a new vessel.

If no suitable return is listed, or you want to use part of a larger return first, press the “Part Returns” button on the lower edge of the screen.

Here the return will have to be poured into the dispense vessel. The list shows the weight of the return that will be used up. The detail panel on the left shows the actual weight of the return. On the screen shot it can be seen that 7.068kg of return will be used from a total size of 17.2kg.

To add a return to the list to be recycled press the “Add” button on the right. You may continue to add returns until there is no more remaining weight available to recycle them.

If you want to maximise the amount of returns recycled press the “Best” button. This attempts to recycle as much material as possible. Be aware that this could lead to having to manually add up to 8 or nine small returns, so this may not be the most efficient method for you to use.

Here “Best” has been selected, resulting in 3 returns being added for recycling. To continue press the “Select” button.

When the first return in the selection is a whole return, you will be given the option to use the return vessel for dispensing. Select yes if you want to dispense into the return, select no if you want to manually add the first return to a new vessel. Subsequent returns will always be added manually.

After making your selection you will see the dispense screen again. Notice that the “Available Returns” button is no longer red, and the recycled material amount has been filled in. In this case 97.8% of the ink will be recycled ink, with the remainder being new ink.

The “Start” button has changed to “Top-up” to indicate that you will be topping up an existing press return rather than using an empty vessel.

Press the “Top-up” button to begin dispensing.

If you change the weight to be dispensed, this will reset the returns list and remove them all from the selection. The “Available Returns” button will glow red again if returns are available for this new weight. This happens because with a different weight parameter some returns will no longer be viable for remixing, and the selection should be made from the updated returns list.

Material Types on ColorPoint

 

One of the subjects that seems to cause a lot of confusion with more advanced use of ColorPoint is the difference between the various types of base materials on the system.

Here is a brief explanation along with some examples of where you might use them.

 

Auto dispense Material

The auto dispense material is the most commonly used on ColorPoint. It refers to a material that is attached to a dispense valve and can be dispensed as required without any operator intervention. When a formula is being dispensed and an auto dispense material is required, the requested amount will be dispensed and then it moves along to the next item in the formula automatically.

The size of a ColorPoint system dictates how many auto dispense materials are supported on that system. An 18 has a maximum of 18 auto materials, and so on. If an Auto Dispense Material is deleted or unassigned from a valve, it appears as a Manual Add Material.

 

Manual Add Material

The manual add material is a material that will be requested by the dispenser when required in a formula, but it is not attached to a dispense valve and so cannot be added automatically. The operator must pull out the scale and manually pour the requested amount into the dispense vessel using the indicator lights to tell him when to stop.

To ensure your dispensing operation is as efficient as possible, it is best practice to make your most frequently dispensed items auto materials. When all dispense valves are allocated, the remaining materials will be manual add materials. Generally due to the quantity, manual materials are added to the formula last therefore appearing at the end of the dispense order.

 

Non-Dispense Materials

Non dispense materials often cause the most confusion. These are materials that are part of the formula, but will not be weighed by the dispenser at all. when a non-dispense material is requested in a formula, the dispenser marks it as fully dispensed at the requested weight and skips to the next item in the formula.

There are two common scenarios for this type of material:

1. The material cannot be added at the dispenser and must be added elsewhere in the process.
2. The material is part of a larger batch and is acting as a placeholder.

 

Non-Dispense Material Added Elsewhere

In this case the dispense vessel will be used to add the non-dispense material so the capacity/overflow checks are carried out taking the requested weight of non-dispense material into account. So a 20kg dispense that contains 10kg of dispensed material and 10kg of non-dispensed material would give an overflow warning if an 18kg vessel was placed on the scale. The dispense completes with 10kg in the dispense vessel which is then taken to another part of the process where the other additives are added.

 

Non-Dispense Material As Placeholder

In this case the dispenser is only dispensing the pigment part of a batch. The non-dispense material will never be added to the dispense vessel and the capacity/overflow checks on take the actual dispensed materials into account. This allows an operator to request the pigment based on the batch size without calculating how much pigment is required. Consider that a batch of 2000kg of product is being produced, but the pigment portion is only 0.95% of the total batch. The operator requests a dispense of 2000kg, but only places a 20kg vessel on the scale. The capacity/overflow check passes as the non-dispense material is excluded from the check. 19kg of pigment is dispensed into the dispense vessel.

 

Limitations

A single dispenser cannot operate in both of the modes described above simultaneously. The setting that defines the mode of operation for non-dispense materials is set by Rexson personnel and cannot be altered by the end user.