Iran-based Mana Sanat Afagh, specialist in the design and development of advanced industrial products, has introduced PICS (Precision Ink Control System), a programmable technology developed for the inking systems of two-piece aluminium beverage can decorators. PICS is designed to control ink transfer independently across different zones of a decorator’s inking unit.

PICS brings three engineering elements together to achieve one objective: precise, programmable control of ink transfer across the width of a decorator’s inking system. Ink Calculator software determines the ink requirement for each zone of a print design and converts it into settings the system can use. The electronic control unit translates those settings into commands for the individual segments of the ductor roller, while the mechanical system adjusts ink transfer in each zone accordingly. Working together, these three elements allow ink transfer to be set independently to match the needs of different areas of each design.

“We developed PICS to address the practical challenge of controlling ink transfer more precisely,” said Mahdi Salahi, founder of Mana Sanat Afagh and inventor and developer of PICS.

“One important feature of its design is that the electro-pneumatic valves are located outside the segmented ductor roller assembly, giving maintenance teams more direct access to them for troubleshooting, servicing or replacement. On decorators that operate continuously at high speed, reducing the time needed to resolve a fault is particularly important. We are now looking for an industry partner to work with us on installing and evaluating PICS on a production machine.”

Beyond the initial installation, Mana Sanat Afagh is open to an industrial partnership supporting further development, industrialisation and the commercial introduction of PICS.