ML Riechers Systems Engineering

Taking the Time to do the Firmware Right.

( Availability, Pricing, and Terms and Conditions)

Our new 901 Registration Replacement Board

We have designed a slide-in replacement using up to date electronics for the 901 registration board. We call it the "TDR 1000." The TDR 1000 consists of a baseboard in the same form factor as the 901 board, and up to 6 of our rse-2d controllers which would be plugged onto the baseboard as "daughter cards." You can purchase only the controllers that you actually need.

Each of the 6 rse-2d "daughter cards" controls the registration of a single Print or Die Station. That means vastly increased processing power, fewer programming complications, and less chance of programming "bugs" messing up the registration. It eliminates the 901's possibility of missing registration marks altogether due to "shadowing."

We've put the added power to work. The all new programming supports taking registration measurements and corrections every repeat. It will do this, reliably, repeat after repeat, while the old 901 might take one measurement out of up to every four repeats.

History and rationale of the ARC 1000:

COMCO offered its ARC 1000 Registration System on selected Captain and Commander Flexographic Printing Presses from the mid 1980's to about the end of 1997, and, for its time, was a respectable and economical product. In general, replacement parts for this system, such as motors, photo-eyes, Opto-relays, power supplies, and so on, are readily available off the market.

What you can't buy (new) for any price is the micro-processor controlled electronics: what we call the and the "901 Registration Board". The Company that made them stopped production in the mid '90's, partially because many of the chips on that board were going obsolete.

We don't normally repair the "901 registration board," because:

1. The board is currently "max'ed out" performance wise, so it is not possible to improve the operation or performance of the board. Changing the registration program would not be cost-effective.

2. Most of the chips used on the board are obsolete, and have not been produced for a number of years. Some of our current stock of replacement (and supposedly "new") chips was manufactured over 25 years ago.

3. The base board itself is old, typically from 10 to 20 years old. Contrary to popular belief, the glass epoxies that the board is made of do break down with age. More importantly, the metallic traces, solder masks and solders deteriorate as well. The metals undergo intermetallic migrations that have adverse affects on electrical performance.

4. We can't really warranty the repair. All we can guarantee is that the board worked after we repaired it, but we cannot warrant that some other component might not fail almost immediately.

TDR-1000 superiorities over the "901 registration board"

As mentioned above, the new Board is vastly more powerful than the old "901 registration board." Additionally, the TDR 1000 is up-gradable. If we develop a feature that you want, you can have us re-program your TDR 1000 controller's firmware. If you think of a feature that you want, we can program it in.

The TDR-1000 is newly made: new circuit boards, new chips, new connectors. The components are all quality, and may last 20, 30, or more years. You get a year's warranty.

The TDR 1000 is designed to "play nicely" with the rest of your ARC 1000 system. Your technicians will have no trouble hooking it up because the cable connections are in the same places, and use the same connectors. Your 501/590 Console will work as it always has. Your actuators will move as before.

More Information

For more information, please see our page on Availability, Pricing, and Terms and Conditions.

Contact Information

M. L. Riechers Systems Engineering     Voice:  +1-513-844-2220
530 Main Street                        Fax:    +1-513-844-2279
Hamilton, Ohio 45013-3222, USA         mlr(at)rse(dot)com

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