The Ink Room of Tomorrow – TodayIncreasingly, printers and packaging converters are focused on standardizing operations to reduce costs, improve quality and increase productivity. But often the ink room is overlooked in these standardization efforts. Managing ink and ensuring both quality of incoming materials and accuracy of ink formulations are key elements of delivering good color quality. If ink does not meet specifications, then all of the other standardization work can be for naught.

This white paper describes an ideal standardized digital workflow that can revolutionize your ink room processes, adding profit to the bottom line while reducing cycle time and rework. It also explains how, using the right tools, ink formulation becomes an integral part of an end-to-end color workflow that ensures that color is right the first time, right every time.

A Digital WorkflowDigital technologies have made their way into most areas of print operations in one way or another. Why not the ink room? The core application used in a digital workflow for the ink room is X-Rite’s InkFormulation Software, a fast, accurate and consistent ink formulation tool that adapts to every printing and packaging condition. It is also a formula creation, storage, approval and retrieval solution for offset, flexographic, gravure and screen-printing inks and includes the ability to formulate recipes that will use up leftover inks. This software is a de facto a standard application in the laboratories of most Ink manufacturers. Here’s how a digital workflow for the ink room would look.

Incoming Ink Inspection - You are likely ordering both CMYK process colors and base colors used for your spot colors. All should be inspected upon arrival at your facility to ensure they meet specifications, including CMYK inks since inconsistencies can occur. Inspection is best accomplished using a spectrophotometer that measures drawdowns that have been dried. We recommend using the X-Rite eXact with X-Rite Color iQC software or other color quality control software to achieve the best results.

Specification - A print job typically comes with color specifications. These are most likely in the form of Pantone references. The customer and printer/converter must agree on the measurement conditions and reference target being used. For best results, use a digital specification that takes into account ink type, printing technology and substrate. A digital specification is always up to date and never fades or is damaged through wear and tear. PantoneLIVE is a secure, cloud-based system that provides spectral values for specified colors based on the printing technology, substrates and inks being used. It is accessible through InkFormulation Software and includes 22 predefined libraries that cover the majority of packaging substrates used in offset, flexo and gravure printing.

Defining A Target Color - Start by measuring a physical sample with the eXact spectrophotometer, importing a digital color file (CxF) from either the InkFormulation library or as provided by the customer, or choosing a color from the PantoneLIVE digital library. All measurements and digital files carry the spectral information of the target color from which the L*a*b* values are calculated.

The Ink Room of Tomorrow – Today

Measuring Substrates - The print substrate must be measured.

Defining Ink Film Thickness - The desired ink film thickness or anilox roller must be defined. A recipe should normally be defined for the ink room proofer, validated there, and then tuned to the specific printing film thickness using software.

Selecting Available Colorants - Select the colorants and available ink leftovers.

Formulation - InkFormulation Software will then calculate recipes that will deliver results within the given tolerances. Recipes are listed according to various sorting criteria, such as ΔE, number of components, spectral deviation, etc. Select a recipe based on project criteria and the selected recipe will be shown in the InkFormulation Software user interface.

Drawdown - Mix the ink using a scale according to the selected recipe; then make a drawdown. With a digital workflow based on spectral values, most customers still require physical drawdowns, since there are very strict tolerances and specifications in place guided by a digital reference. This saves significant cycle time. Once ink is formulated you will want to continue to check it against the target for color accuracy. Make sure your proofer settings are as close as possible to the production press geometry for the target press.

Measuring the Drawdown - Measure the drawdown in three places using the eXact and InkFormulation will calculate an average spectral measurement. The drawdown measurement is then compared with the target color by the InkFormulation Software and a ΔE is calculated. If necessary, InkFormulation will calculate a correction of the formulated ink if it is out of spec. Reformulate and create a new drawdown as necessary. In practice, fewer drawdowns are required when using a digital workflow, significantly speeding up the ink preparation process.

Saving the Recipe - Once the formulation is determined to be within tolerance, the recipe is saved and the correct color and weight can be formulated – this time and every time!

It should be noted that several different recipes may be required for the same color, depending on the target substrate. And, of course, spectral measurements must be taken during makeready and press runs to ensure consistent color that meets customer requirements. This can be done using the X-Rite eXact.

In addition to ink room efficiencies, InkFormulation Software is part of an end-to-end color workflow with the ability to exchange color data with PantoneLIVE digital libraries as stated above, as well as with quality control software such as ColorCert InkRoom and Color iQC. Ink professionals can quickly compare their formulations to a digital color reference stored in the PantoneLIVE ecosystem or as a measured CxF standard. This automatically makes both the formula and reference data available to quality control software for a pass/fail analysis and improves the ability to integrate color specification and reporting into supply chain workflows to efficiently monitor print production and make ink corrections in real time to avoid color errors.

There are press-side benefits as well. Ink formulation issues on press can be resolved quickly, for flexographic and gravure printers. When press-side color measurements do not meet tolerances, and quality control software reports that tolerances cannot be met with the existing ink formulation, reformulation data can be sent to the X-Rite InkFormulation Software at the push of a button. The ink room can make appropriate adjustments and dispense the new formula speeding up the correction process on press. This minimizes press downtime and keeps print quality high without the need for a press operator to be an ink expert.

PICTURED: InkFormulation Software

The Ink Room of Tomorrow – Today

Finally, InkFormulation Software also features enhanced management information system (MIS) integration and a job-based capability that uses tags to associate ink recipes to individual jobs. This simplifies data interchange with MIS systems whereby the MIS system can request from InkFormulation Software a new material number based on specifications and naming conventions defined in the MIS, or by referencing a multi-color CxF file stored in PantoneLIVE or elsewhere. This request would then appear in the ink kitchen as a job with a target color requiring an ink recipe to be defined. Once the recipe is defined, InkFormulation Software returns the recipe to the MIS with a bill of materials – a list of ingredients and the percentage for each. MIS integration closes the loop in a production workflow for everything from estimating to invoicing, making it easier to estimate ink consumption by job as well as to reuse existing ink formulations without the need to send a request to the ink kitchen. In addition, all ink recipes required for a given job can be linked to that job, streamlining the workflow even further, adding significant value at many converter and ink sites.

The Bottom LineMoving your ink room to a digital workflow has many benefits that will save time and money while improving overall color quality. Some of the benefits include:• Faster time to more accurate ink colors with increased quality levels.• Improved repeatability from batch to batch and job to job.• Reduced ink inventory and the ability to better use leftover inks.• Reduced number of drawdowns.• Automated ink formulation, including all documentation.• Fast retrieval of stored recipes.• Integration with color measurement instruments and into a complete end-to-end color workflow including quality control software, press-side

operations and MIS solutions.

Ensuring the best possible ink match is critical to delivering the color quality and consistency customers demand. It can be difficult and expensive to recover from ink errors, and out-of-tolerance inks increase makeready waste, rejects and rework. By implementing a digital workflow in the ink room, there is significantly reduced opportunity for error and a streamlined workflow getting to the press.

X-Rite is either a registered trademark or trademark of X-Rite, Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. PANTONE©, PantoneLIVE and other Pantone trademarks are the property of Pantone LLC. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © X-Rite, Inc. 2015. All rights reserved.

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