There Are Ghosts in your Pressroom!

Printing that meets industry specifications and tolerances requires excellent control of all inputs that affect color reproduction. However, I find that even in pressrooms that understand this and print well, there are “ghosts” in their pressrooms that affect not only 4CP reproduction, but spot colors, too. They result in compromises in quality, excess downtime and waste and get in the way of the more efficient set-ups required for short runs. 

The ghosts are ink metering and ink formulation. I could write many, many words about each one, but my purpose here is only to alert you to them. 

I have seen metering challenges in every pressroom I have visited. The worst offenders are usually overpressurization of blades against aniloxes, resulting in variation in ink film thickness, inconsistent press configuration, not formulating to specific press conditions and volume variation due to inconsistent cell cleanliness. 

I have seen ink formulation challenges in every pressroom I have visited. Many things can go wrong here and multiple usually do. Ink formula calculations and cooperation between formulas and press configurations are almost always involved. 

Step back and have another, closer look at ink metering and ink formulation in your pressroom. I have no doubt there’s opportunity to be discovered. 

Be a ghostbuster. It pays well.