For the paper and board sector of print on demand, moisture is one of the biggest waste-creators in our industry. Paper wrinkles. Boxboard warps. The wrong moisture and temperature in your factory could cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Depending on the time of year and your location, humidity levels can fluctuate from 30% to 80%! This creates significant print and substrate performance variety within your factory.
From advanced air conditioning systems to dehumidifiers, many approaches are used to maintain a consistent manufacturing environment.
However, what surprises me is how few people actually monitor and record humidity levels for the batches they are manufacturing! Doing so could reveal an even better formula for controlling the manufacturing environment.
How does it work? By making use of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.
Smart, affordable sensors can be integrated into your local network. You can use them to collect humidity and temperature data and then, with the right software like ZenSmart to associate the values to your submissions, batches and orders….. get valuable insights into quality, yield and performance.
Reports can tell you, for example, if failure rates correlate with humidity and temperature. By finding these trends, you can then focus your attention on resolving the issue.
ZenSmart has a rich IoT integration framework built into the platform and integrating IoT sensors is just another way you could continuously improve the quality and operating margin of your manufacturing plant.
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