The ECP-2000M stands for Embedded Controlled Printing, 2000 being the model number and M indicating model with Memory. As the name suggests, ECP is a microcontroller-based unit used to control the ink flow in the offset machines and also to control the circumferential and lateral movements (i.e. registration) of the plates used in printing.

Broadly speaking, the ECP controls the movement of the following motors in the offset printing machine. Each motor of every unit is controlled and monitored by a dedicated port. Thus needs a lot of wiring to be done.

The ECP2000M front panel consists of bar graph and digital displays for every single of the above-mentioned motors for a single cylinder as shown in Figure 1.

The digital display for the Ink keys and Ink Duct shows the motor movement (i.e. the amount of ink flow) in percentage from 00 to 99. Whereas the digital display for the Circumferential and Lateral shows the motor movement in terms of the plate movement in millimeters (i.e. 2mm on either side of center) from +2.00 to –2.00. The motor movement is possible through dedicated keys on the front panel below their respective bar graph displays.

Figure 2: Front Panel for the Ink keys with individual key number in blue, bar graph, digital display and movement keys to move the motor in both directions.

The ECP also consists of a graphic LCD display and a main keyboard on the main front panel. The LCD display shows various parameters such as the currently selected cylinder. It is also used as a man-machine interface while any memory related operations or any other special functions present in the ECP. The main keyboard consists of cylinder selection keys for selecting of the cylinder. It also consists of the numeric keys and some special keys dedicated to the corresponding functions the ECP performs.

Figure 3: Main Panel with Circumferential, Lateral and Ink duct bar graphs, digital displays and movement keys. LCD display showing machine status, cylinder selection and counter values. Main keyboard for cylinder selection and memory related functions.

The main feature of the ECP is its ability to store the positions of all the above-mentioned motors for each cylinder, which makes the printing of repeated jobs very easy and fast. The ECP consists of two types of memory (i.e. the Internal Memory and the External Memory). The Internal memory of ECP can store up to 50 jobs while the External memory has ability to store 100 jobs.