How to develop new colour standards

As a leading international supplier for prepress, gravure printing and embossing tools, flexo presses and special machines, the Saueressig Group has been a source of comprehensive expertise for decades. Two years ago, it launched c.Inktec as a new space for creative ideas and product innovations. Based in Vreden, this Innovation Centre assists in any kind of packaging enhancement, offers a wide range of laboratory and testing facilities and provides the opportunity to discover new technologies and digital experiences. Well-known brands, brand owners and packaging experts from the tobacco or food industry are making extensive use of its services and developments.

One key aim of c.Inktec is to standardize the supply chain and make it more transparent through digital value creation and intelligent systems and services, whilst also avoiding costs and travel, which are currently one of the pain points for customers. “We use a variety of modules and tools that we have created and that are already available, such as Digital Ink Recipe, our cloud environment for press control, laboratory testing and in-house test printing, to deliver the design to the customer’s supply chain with the right substrate, the right ink, fully transparently and ready for transfer – online or offline.” explains Christian Groh, Global Head c.Inktec. “Customers often tell us these new steps are difficult or impossible to implement. But, based on our knowledge, we can say they’re not. Because it is a process and solution-based problem. It’s time to integrate our processes and stop working as separate silos.” This is precisely the aim of the new c.Inktec team at Saueressig, which can call on ink technicians, project managers from the printing industry with years of development experience, solution managers and out-of-the-box thinkers to creatively support new projects and solutions.

Upgrade Your Colours

One real plus point for c.Inktec is the colour laboratory that forms an integral part of it. Using innovative cloud-based colour solutions, its experts define colour targets in detail and create digital recipes for print and proof; ensuring true brand colour reproduction regardless of the printing process and substrate. By using universal machines, colours for gravure, flexo and offset printing can be created and tested. This opens up the possibility of determining the potential of new ideas and concepts directly on site. The colour recipes created here for printers ensure fewer corrections on the press, less wasted material and less time in the ink kitchen. Ultimately, these formulations deliver cost savings for the customer.

This is an area where there have always been and continue to be new developments for the printing industry: “Our use of digital systems makes all the activities of your supply chain and our work fully transparent””, explains Groh. c.Inktec works with cloud-based systems to deliver the same colour to every corner of the world. To achieve this, product colours are measured and transferred to a digital system in order to control them via all the technically relevant printing parameters. ”If you think about it, such a colour library makes it practical and user friendly to control colour transparently from design to inspection – anytime, anywhere.” The system can also be extended to include approval tools.

Redesigning

Through constant work over recent months, c.Inktec has developed innovative printing technologies and a growing network.  In addition to a comprehensive knowledge of inks, a wide range of ink assortments and test print specialists, its experts have close links with the international market and are equipped with the latest technology. “We have the assortments of various ink suppliers in our system and maintain good relationships, which has helped us in the past to adapt our processes to other laboratories or to share our processes”, says Groh. The team also works closely with universities to constantly develop new products to make the communication of colour even easier.

For the majority of customers, achieving colour goals through visual matching, colour control issues at different printing locations, and producing consistent quality printed products are top priorities. But there are a number of challenges. “If customers have these problems we can help them understand, improve and ultimately eliminate them. Our team is configured for precisely these cases. We can act locally on a small scale or do the big number and think globally for our customers”, says Groh. Thanks to this flexibility, c.Inktec offers both modular and complete solutions. So, its experts can meet individual brand requirements and integrate customized brand colour standards into every point of a supply chain – for that all-important global consistency.