A Lot Faster in Color

Which printer doesn't have the wish to accelerate the make-ready process and print with consistently high quality throughout the run? Heidelberg's answer is called Prinect Inpress Control. It ensures fast inking up and corrects color and register deviations while the press is in operation.

It's a well-known fact that time is money.
That's why in printing, inking-up as fast as possible is important. In other words: Deviations from the desired value have to be recognized and corrected as quickly as possible. Afterwards, the started print job should of course run without interruption or a loss in quality. This is exactly where Prinect Inpress Control proves to be a big help: The spectralphotometric inline color measurement and regulation system measures the color control bar in defined color fields of each single sheet - right from the start while the machine is in operation, and at all ranges of speed. In so doing, it determines that the entire run is color-stable.

Shorter make-ready times.
"In order to measure and control the colors and register, the printer usually has to pull a sheet, stop the machine when necessary and then adjust accordingly. This wastes a lot of precious time," says a knowing Volker Becker, product manager for Prinect at Heidelberg. "Not at all the case with Prinect Inpress Control: By completely standardizing jobs in advance, a lot of time is saved by simply letting the measuring device do its work. In this way, the ink is practically automatically set and above all else quickly - even at the highest production speeds!" Print shops with a multitude of job changes each day therefore benefit in particular from the reduced make-ready times.

This is the way it works: A measuring unit, made up of six measuring heads on the Speedmaster CD 74 and eight on the Speedmaster XL 105 sits at the last printing unit. In the case of perfecting presses, an additional unit is located before the perfecting device. The measuring unit recognizes the new color-control bar with a measurement field size of roughly 0.13 x 0.16 inches (3.25 × 4 millimetre) automatically - regardless of whether it was positioned on the front edge of the sheet or in the middle. These color control bars can be measured at printing speeds of up to 18,000 sheets per hour. At the same time, the "spectral eye" constantly compares the measured values with the reference color values.

If Prinect Inpress Control detects the need for corrections during production, it communicates this through the machine control center Prinect CP2000, which then immediately updates the ink zones. The operator is shown the color differences on the monitor of the CP2000 Center. Special colors can of course be automatically controlled just as precisely as process colors (CMYK) with Prinect Inpress Control. Soon Prinect Inpress Control will also be equipped with a log function with which the printer can then concretely track how constant the recorded color values over the course of a run are maintained.

Thanks to its capabilities, Prinect Inpress Control is the ideal complement in the print shop to Prinect Image Control: While the Image Control may be hooked up to multiple machines and used for color measurement and control as well as color management, with Inpress Control the print shop profits from accelerated make-ready times and even results during printing. "This combination facilitates increased productivity in businesses which can't be realized with any other solution," says a convinced Becker.

Rapid pay-off time.
For print shops with many standard orders and frequent job changes, Inpress Control pays off in average after roughly 12 to 24 months. As a general rule, the more orders a print shop processes, the more Prinect Inpress Control pays off. The greatest demand is currently in Germany, Japan and the United States. "We anticipate a very high market potential worldwide and thoroughly expect Prinect Inpress Control to meet with great response from customers working industrially," says Becker.