100% Camera Inspection
It’s easy for a certain air of mystique and secrecy to build up around small family businesses, particularly in the manufacturing industry. Who really knows how the machines are run? What goes into the process? And how can customers be really, truly sure that the result is going to be as advertised?
In order to promote transparency and visibility into the process, Sticker Mountain employees banded together to share an in-depth point of view into our printing press camera inspection process and a wider view of our quality control practices.
We hope that this empowers you to feel confident in working with us!
What is a Camera Inspection?
In order to understand a Sticker Mountain camera inspection, let’s first take a look at the star of the show: the camera itself.
Our inspection camera is a highly technical camera strictly used for quality control inspections of our labels and stickers. It is mounted to our rewinder unit and oversees each label as it comes off of the press. While we need to keep some trade secrets about the camera, what we can tell you is that it’s a true workhorse!
The images were taken during this process come up on an overhead screen, which is calibrated before each run to a master file of the label image. When we calibrate the camera, it merges multiple iterations of labels and creates a QC file to run tests on. This is the master file. The calibration process ensures that you only receive high-quality labels that meet the expectations of the original concept image.
During the run itself, any errors that the camera catches are instantly shown on the overhead screen and the problem areas are boxed in order to highlight specific issues. Then, a team member steps in to manually adjust the process as needed and replies to the sheet to ensure that only perfect labels are sent to you.
If you are interested in seeing the process live, check out our team video here!
What’s really special about the Sticker Mountain process is that this is only one of the steps in our rigorous quality control process. Let’s take a deeper look at the other four steps and why we are committed to going about and beyond for your labels.
The Other Pieces of Quality Control
Our presses run over seven hundred feet of labels per minute. That’s a lot of labels! This speed is the very reason why our quality control standards are so rigorous; every little bit of effort counts!
In total, our team follows five quality control checkpoints for every run of the product we create. These are:
- An art department inspection of the original idea and concept.
- Press operator inspection as the labels come off of the presses. (they get to use our awesome camera!)
- Finishing station inspection, as the final touches, such as gloss, are added.
- A final visual inspection by our team at the end of the manufacturing process.
- And a shipping inspection of the packages before we send them off to you.
Now, you may be wondering why we take all of this time and effort? Wouldn’t fewer checkpoints make more sense in the long run?
The truth of the matter is that we value our clients and staff too much to send out even a slightly flawed or defective product to anyone! It really can be that simple.
This work ethic has been drilled into Sticker Mountain from the very beginning of our existence as a small family business and has carried down throughout the generations until today. It’s all part of our promise to you.
Our Promise to You
Here at Sticker Mountain, we take our promises very seriously. To ourselves, we promise excellence in our professional lives and attitudes to our fellow workers. To the company, we promise quality work and on-time results. And to you, we promise stickers, labels, and services tailored to what you need, when you need them.
You see, when we say Sticker Mountain is a family business, we mean that in the best possible sense of the term. A family looks out for each other and strives to bring the best out of every member and project.
That’s the Sticker Mountain promise to you and to every person who works with us.
