Printing Partner - Quality Control Device - Continuous QA in Printer App 2.0

This guide details the complete end-to-end workflow for managing continuous Quality Assurance (QA) work orders in the ScanTrust Printer App.

What you need before starting

App settings: Disable automatic updates for the Printer App on all QA phones. Update only between jobs: a mid-scan update will corrupt session data. This matters more here, because a continuous QA job can run for days.
Codes: Downloaded from a production work order on the ScanTrust portal.
Hardware: Compatible device with attached optics or 3D-printed kit.
Account: Production QA access, as Printing Operator or Printer administrator.
Calibration: Approved press and substrate calibration matching your device class. A calibration that has been submitted is not yet approved, and this is the most common reason a session refuses to start.
Work order: Set up for continuous QA by ScanTrust. The app does not mark a work order as continuous QA, so you cannot tell from the app alone.
Instructions: Use this article rather than any copy you saved or printed from an earlier version. The steps have changed and the earlier ones do not work on 2.0.

Device classes and compatibility

• Optics-enabled class: Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+, S10, S10+, S10e, S10 5G, S20, S20+, S21, S21+ and S21 Ultra with ScanTrust clip-on optics.
• Non-optics class: Google Pixel 9 Pro, 10 Pro and 11 Pro with the 3D-printed kit.
• Cross-class mixing is not supported. Calibrations are tied to the hardware class, so a job calibrated on an optics device cannot be verified on a non-optics device, or the reverse. An uncalibrated or mismatched device produces Error 9200.
• Any other phone shows an Unsupported phone message.

How run 1 and later runs differ

Print run 1: a full session

The first run is an ordinary QA session with all four stages available.

1. Log in to the ScanTrust Printer app as Printing Operator or Printer administrator.

2. Open the work order. Open the app menu, tap Work orders, then search by ID or reference. Tap the row to open its session list.

3. Create the session. Tap CREATE NEW SESSION and give it a reference you will recognise later, such as a job number, a press or a shift. Only one session can be open per work order at a time.

Figure 1: From the session list, tap CREATE NEW SESSION and give the run a reference.

4. Work through the four stages, in order.

Stage 1: Make Ready (optional)

• Purpose: test scans during press setup and alignment.
• Scans: no minimum scan count, and failed scans are ignored.
• Device: master phone only.

Stage 2: Referencing (mandatory)

• Purpose: sets the quality tolerance that every later scan, and every later run, is judged against. Press Run and Finishing stay locked until it is complete.
• Scans, serialized codes: 10 good scans.
• Scans, static codes: 10 good scans, or one per imposition if the plate has more than 10.
• Device: master phone only.

Stage 3: Press Run (optional)

• Purpose: spot-checking print quality during the run.
• Scans: no minimum scan count. A failed scan raises an alert but does not block the run.
• Device: master phone. Secondary phones can join from this point on.

Stage 4: Finishing (mandatory)

• Purpose: final quality check, and the scans ScanTrust uses to train the codes for that run.
• Scans: 20 good scans, spread across the run. Submit stays disabled until the session has them.
• Device: master phone and any joined phone.

5. Submit the session with its impressions, as described under Submitting each session below.

Wait for ScanTrust to confirm the work order is ready

We train the work order from run 1’s scans, and that step happens on our side. The app gives you no signal when it is done, so do not start run 2 until your ScanTrust contact confirms it.

Starting early is worse than it looks: the session may open normally and fail later, when Finishing will not open. If that happens, email us rather than retrying.

Run 2 onwards: one session per print run

Open the work order. Because it already has a submitted run the row is greyed out, so tap the repeat icon to open the session list. Tap CREATE NEW SESSION and give the run a reference you will recognise later, such as a date, a shift or a reel number.

The session opens with the tolerance already set. Here is what you will and will not see on the stage screen:

• Stage 1: Make Ready. Not available. It shows as already ticked. You cannot scan it, and you do not need to.
• Stage 2: Referencing. Not available. It shows as already ticked. The tolerance comes from run 1 and is never set again.
• Stage 3: Press Run. Available, optional. No minimum scan count, master phone and, once joined, a second phone.
• Stage 4: Finishing. Available, mandatory. 20 good scans, as in any session. Master phone and any joined phone.

A follow-up run looks like a session with the first two stages already ticked. Nothing is missing and nothing has gone wrong. Press Run and Finishing are both open from the start, so you can use either or both.

Any phone in your company can create a follow-up session. It does not have to be the phone that ran print run 1. Whichever phone creates the session is that session’s master device and is the one that submits or closes it.

You can split one print run across several sessions. Scan requirements and impressions are counted per session, not per run.

Submitting each session

Finishing needs 20 good scans before the session can be submitted. On the master device, tap Submit session and enter the total impressions printed from when that session was created until you submit it, across all phones. That is items printed, not different codes, so the same code printed 5,000 times counts as 5,000. Each session records its own count.

Figure 2: Each session records its own impressions. Read the figure off the press counter and tap CONFIRM.

Once a session is submitted it is logged against the work order, and you return to the session list to create the next run.

Adding a second phone

A second phone can join once Press Run has opened, to help with Finishing.

1. On the second phone, open the same work order.
2. Select the active session and tap JOIN SESSION.
3. Each phone shows only its own Finishing counter, so aim for 20 good scans on each. Extra scans are fine.

Figure 3: Joining an active session from a second phone.

Quality alerts during a run

A scan that falls below the tolerance raises one of three alerts. From run 2 onwards they are judged against the tolerance set in run 1.

• Bad Print Detected! (orange). Quality is below tolerance but still at or above one third of it. Discard the faulty item and tap SCAN AGAIN.
• Stop the Production! (red). Quality dropped below one third of the tolerance. Stop the press. Tap SCAN AGAIN, or INVESTIGATE to work back along the run, find the last code that scanned well and pull the faulty items out of production. The Investigate screen walks you through it, and afterwards you carry on scanning in the same stage.
• 2 Bad Prints Detected! (red, Referencing only). Two consecutive failed scans during Referencing. The only action is Restart QA Session, which closes the session and asks you for a reference for a new one. You will only ever see this during print run 1, because Referencing is not available in later runs.

Figure 4: The three alert levels, left to right: Bad Print, 2 Bad Prints in Referencing, Stop the Production.

Figure 5: Tapping INVESTIGATE opens this screen, which walks you through finding and removing the faulty items.

Session states and past runs

• Open / Active: scanning is underway.
• Submitted: the run was submitted and its impression count recorded.
• Closed / Cancel: the session was ended manually without submitting. "Cancel" is the app wording for a manually closed session.

Open any past run to see when it was created and by whom, when it was submitted, its impressions, and its Production statistics, the print-quality and surface-coverage charts, colour-coded by stage.

Closing a run without submitting

If a run hits a problem at the press, the phone that created the session can open the session details, tap CLOSE SESSION and confirm. That frees the work order so you can start the next run, with no support ticket needed.

Closing discards every scan in that session. Only the creating phone can close it. If that phone is lost or broken, email support with the work order number and the session name.

Frequently asked questions

Why can I not scan Make Ready or Referencing on run 2?
Both are locked from run 2 onwards and show as already ticked. The quality tolerance was set once, by run 1, and every later run is judged against it.

Finishing will not open on a follow-up session. What now?
This is the one failure specific to continuous QA, and it usually means the work order had not finished training when the run started. Do not close and retry the session repeatedly. Email support@scantrust.com with the work order number and the session name and we will check the work order state.

How do I know a work order is set up for continuous QA?
Not from the app. It does not label a work order as continuous QA. Your ScanTrust contact confirms it.

Why does the work order stay at Printed (CQA) in the portal?
A continuous QA work order stays in that status rather than moving to Completed, until we close continuous QA on it. That is expected, not a fault.

Can I reopen a finished stage or reset the scans?
No. Stages cannot be reopened. To start over, close the session and create a new one.

What causes Error 9200?
No approved press and substrate calibration was found for your device class. Check that the press setup and the phone hardware class have an approved profile, and remember that a submitted calibration is not yet an approved one.

Getting help

If you need help, open a support request. An email opens with everything we need already listed. Please fill in what you can, attach a clear screenshot of what you see, and send it to us.

If no email opens, write to support@scantrust.com and include your work order ID, QA session name, the exact wording of what you see on screen, your phone model, your Printer App version (shown at the bottom of the login screen) and your Android version (Settings > About phone).