‘SpectraLab has a level of accuracy that human eyesight cannot replicate’

The company manufactures over 13 billion cartons a year for liquid food products and wanted an on-press module to monitor ink densities to make sure its presses are printing correctly.

Color shift and material waste

Maurice Wierckx, process improvement engineer, Elopak, told FoodProductionDaily benefits of SpectraLab include immediate alerts, when colors shift out of tolerance, which limits material waste due to off-color printing.

“SpectraLab is a quality assurance tool that allows printers to match the brand colors of its customers across multiple substrates​,” he said.

“Its enhanced accuracy in terms of color match inspection is due to its ability to conduct quality assurance on a color scale superior to that discernible by the human eye. This is called measurement “to the numbers,” which refers to the color spectrum as numerically represented by science​.

“SpectraLab can tell if, for example, if Coca-Cola’s red is really Coca-Cola’s red, and not just a shade lighter or darker.  It’s a level of accuracy that human eyesight cannot replicate​.”

Elopak bought a third machine from AVT after installing SpectraLab at its other factories in Germany and Denmark and was happy with its combination of accuracy, speed and efficiency.

Design changes within individual jobs

The carton manufacturer’s day-to-day operations include frequent job changes as well as design changes within individual jobs. Make-ready procedures need to be fast and accurate, and colors must precisely match those defined by brand owner graphics. 

“Not only must colors be tightly consistent within print runs, but repeatable between jobs and repeat runs​,” added Wierckx.

“The semi-automated color bar enables the operator to set up the system in a very short time without any loss on job make-ready​.”

He said by adding SpectraLab’s database into its Business Intelligence Dashboards, which are used in its daily production meetings, it can monitor and detect any changes that may occur in its printing colors and solve them before unacceptable deviations are printed.

The way SpectraLab works is, it measures absolute L*a*b* (lab color space), density, and dot gain measurement.  

Paperboard and flexible materials

The system ensures consistent color printing all along the print run and the on-press module supports high production speeds and measures color on substrates, including paper, carton products such as paperboard, and flexible materials.

Other advantages include: printing “to the numbers,” which saves time and press stops; enhanced color reporting capabilities and supporting any common file standards and communicates with third party reporting systems and databases.

“AVT’s SpectraLab ensures print runs “by the numbers,” meaning it continuously monitors ink densities to verify that presses are printing within prescribed tolerances​,” said Wierckx. 

At Elopak, implementation of AVT’s SpectraLab included a period of evaluation and specific adaptations made for Elopak’s needs and workflow protocol.