How SpectroVision Slashes Flexo Make-Ready Costs
As a refresher, the Techkon SpectroVision is an inline color quality or color QC solution that can be mounted to your existing flexo, gravure, or digital press. It features a true, 31 point, spectrophotometer that is capable of measuring color bars, color patches, or anywhere inside the printed artwork while the press is running at speeds of over 1,000 ft/min. However, SpectroVision is quite unique in its’ ability to measure an entire process control color bar in a single printed impression. This is what makes it the fastest inline color measurement device on the market and sets it apart from other competitive inline color measurement systems that can only measure 1 color patch at a time. And….this is precisely what gives SpectroVision the unique ability to slash your make-ready costs and increase your profitability.
Just take a minute to think about your current make-ready process today. Do your press operators make visual color adjustments until they think they’re close, then stop the press, cut out a sample, find their handheld spectrophotometer, take color measurements, determine the necessary changes, fire up the press again, make the required color adjustments, and then repeat this process until the job meets the desired color standard or print condition? Or maybe they don’t even stop the press while taking measurements which further increases make-ready materials? Or does all of this sound like so much work to the operator that instead they just judge the job by eye and maybe measure the color later once they are in production?
Now let’s talk about how Techkon’s SpectroVision can change things and increase efficiencies during your make-readies. First, SpectroVision is pre-programmed to find the location of your color bars or color measurement locations inside the artwork. Next, SpectroVision knows the desired or aim densities, color values, and TVI’s for every color patch you are measuring. During make-ready, SpectroVison automatically measures and reports data as fast as possible to the operator. This means the whole measurement process is completely automated for your press operators for increased efficiencies and reduced make-ready times.
For jobs with color bars on both the gear side and operator side of the press, the system measures the entire color bar on the gear side (in a single printed impression), traverses over the operator side, measures this entire color bar, and then displays the data to the press operator on 2 large, touch screen, monitors mounted on or near the press. This whole process takes only a few seconds to accomplish and the operator will immediately see the measured density, color, and TVI information broken down for both sides of the web.
Next, the system automatically repeats this process so the operator will have another, fresh, set of measurement data in just a matter of seconds. The beauty here is that the operator is essentially always looking and reacting to real-time, current, density and color information throughout the make-ready process without having to stop and start the press for off-line color measurements. The operator can simply pay attention to the color performance of the job which is clearly presented to them and with actionable feedback and recommendations to get up to color faster, end the make-ready process, and move into production.
Hopefully, this short blog was able to illustrate how SpectroVision is different from other inline systems that can only measure 1 color patch at a time. As discussed, SpectroVision makes it possible to drastically reduce your make-ready times by:
- Automating the color measurement process
- Measuring an entire color bar in a single printed impression
- Providing clear, actionable, feedback to your operators
While slashing make-ready times is just one of the many benefits of SpectroVision, it is without question one of the most important benefits because of its direct correlation to the profitability of every printed job.
If you would like to learn more about the economics of SpectroVision and how it can increase your profitability, please contact us for a custom ROI based on your production environment variables. In addition, you can send us a roll of your printed work and we would be happy to set up a live demonstration using your work where you can see SpectroVision in action and learn about its’ other exciting features like live web viewing and real-time bar code grading. Thanks and we look forward to talking with you!