Tell me again about the new Techkon ColorEnsure™ technology…
I’m glad you asked! As you may have heard, Techkon USA recently launched a completely new version of it’s ChromaQA software (version 3.0). This new software pairs with the SpectroDens spectro-densitometer to form a very comprehensive, but easy to use, pressroom color quality solution that allows packaging and commercial printers to monitor the color quality of jobs on press. This kind of real-time job monitoring provides immediate feedback to press operators regarding the color quality of the job compared to the color standards and tolerances set up for that particular job. Based on this live feedback, operators can immediately catch & correct problems earlier, minimize color errors, reduce waste, cut make ready times, and ultimately save money.
OK, so what does any of this have to do with Techkon ColorEnsure? Well, you know how spectro-densitometers all have settings on them for Measurement Condition (M0, M1, M2, & M3), Illuminant, Observer, Density Filter, etc. and sometimes these settings are mistakenly changed to the wrong settings? Well, what if there was a way to guarantee that when your press operators are taking color measurements, these settings are always 100% accurate for the job they are measuring? This is exactly what Techkon ColorEnsure does within the new ChromaQA 3.0 solution.
Here’s how it works:
- A Job is created in the ChromaQA Spec module. This job defines the key colors to be monitored along with the reference or aim values for those colors and customer specific pass/fail tolerances. This job also contains the precise SpectroDens instrument settings (measurement condition, illuminant, observer, density filter, etc.) that are required to ensure the colors are being measured properly and communicated accurately within the ChromaQA platform.
- When the press operator is ready to run the job on press, they open the job in the ChromaQA Press module. This is where live, measured, data will be automatically entered into the software and compared to the aim or reference color data in real time and this is where the Techkon ColorEnsure technology takes over. Before every sample is measured, the ColorEnsure feature automatically checks the connected SpectroDens instrument to be sure that the instrument is set up exactly as specified in the job. If the instrument is not set up properly, the operator will see the dialog box below alerting them to the situation.
- Here, if the operator clicks “Yes”, the instrument will be automatically configured according to the job specifications. Conversely, if the user clicks “No”, then the measurement sequence is aborted. In this fashion, the ColorEnsure feature takes all of the guess work out of setting up the SpectroDens instrument for accurate color measurements every time.
- Finally, when the press run is complete and all the measurement data has been collected, the ChromaQA Reports module is used to create Summary and Trend reports which verify adherence to customer specifications or industry standard printing conditions. Once again, Techkon ColorEnsure is hard at work, behind the scenes, and only allowing the color data to be formatted and reported according to the specific measurement conditions established in the job.
To sum it up, Techkon’s new ColorEnsure feature allows you to easily and automatically coordinate your fleet of instruments across your ChromaQA workflow (even at different locations) to ensure that they are all properly configured for accurate color measurements according to the specifications within each ChromaQA job.