QuadTech has displayed its extensive range of color management and defect management solutions at this year’s show. Alongside the highlighted product portfolio, which is designed to ensure consistently high color quality, significantly lower production times, reduced waste and increased profits, visitors to the QuadTech stand have seen live demonstrations of ColorTrack, QuadTech’s latest color workflow solution for packaging printers.

According to QuadTech president Karl Fritchen, “We have demonstrated our color management technology at a number of key events this year already, and the feedback we have received from packaging converters has been phenomenal. We knew from the reaction at drupa the potential impact ColorTrack and DeltaCam could have on the industry, and we’re delighted to hear such positive feedback directly from the market. Since last summer, our developers and engineers have continued to develop the products.”

Among the innovations featured at the show has been QuadTech’s Color Measurement with DeltaCam, launched at last year’s drupa. The system makes advanced, inline spectral measurement affordable to individual packaging print houses. For about half the cost of other inline systems, package printers can utilize accurate, automated L*a*b* measurement on film, paper or board–ensuring that all printed product is within their customers’ color specifications. The M1, M0, ISO compliant technology enables printers to reduce time and waste while confidently maintaining color throughout the roll–without the need to wait for a roll change to measure with a handheld device.

ColorTrack, a new color management software for flexo and gravure packaging applications, is a highly adaptive “color expert in a box” solution for packaging printers. With a variety of options for hand-held and inline configurations, the software facilitates fast, accurate press-side correction of ink formulations. Without any hardware modifications to the press, ColorTrack automates the process of delivering absolute consistency from press-to-press, shift-to-shift, and plant-to-plant.

QuadTech’s Color Control with SpectralCam, which compares color accuracy to desired targets–inline, during the print run–and detects any variation. If any problems are found, the system automatically corrects the problem without the need for operator intervention. The SpectralCam camera uses 31-bin spectrophotometer technology to measure spectral response and calculates accurate L*a*b*, ΔE and ΔDensity values at maximum press speeds.

“Now our colors are consistent from the beginning to end of the print run,” says Sébastien Garaboeuf, director of French printing house Imprimerie Bidoit. “We are achieving higher quality with less waste on a variety of labels and substrates. Not only has this automation given us advantage over the competition, but it shows customers and new prospects that we are a company committed to absolute color consistency.”

The live ColorTrack demonstrations have also been used to showcase QuadTech’s seven “color management breakthrough” technologies.

1.     Pre-Laminate/Post-Laminate Color Support
2.     ColorTrack Press-Side Recipe Correction Module
3.     Ink strength/Anilox Color Correction
4.     Spot Color Tone Value Calculation to ISO 20654
5.     Enhanced Color Measurement through Strip Scanning
6.     Simplified Ink Quantity Tracking via Patented “Virtual Scales”
7.     Complete, Simplified Workflow