Patent ID: 8863661

Claim:
A printing system for printing a plurality of printed layers onto a substrate, said printing system comprising: a bed having a headstock and tailstock, said headstock and said tailstock rotatably receiving and supporting at least one of a plurality of cylinders at a printing station, said plurality of cylinders corresponding to said plurality of printed layers, respectively; a platen adapted to receive the substrate; a plurality of drivers for driving at least one of said plurality of cylinders or said platen in a plurality of axes to effect layer-to-layer registration of the plurality of printed layers on the substrate; at least one camera for measuring a position of a plurality of fiducials associated with each of said plurality of printed layers of printing; and a control system for receiving said measurements of said positions of said plurality of fiducials and for correcting for positional errors between successive layers of said plurality of printed layers of printing by energizing at least one of said plurality of drivers to drive said at least one of said plurality of cylinders or said platen in at least one of said plurality of axes; wherein each of said plurality of cylinders prints at least one of said plurality of printed layers onto the substrate, said control system being adapted to determine a layer-to-layer registration relationship between at least two of said plurality of printed layers and for correcting said positional errors as said successive layers of said plurality of printed layers are printed on the substrate and wherein all of said successive layers of said plurality of printed layers are printed on the same substrate.