Despite increasing competition from printing companies in neighboring mainland China and other Southeast Asian markets, the finance and trading metropolis Hong Kong still has a strong local printing industry. This includes commercial web offset and newspaper printers who bank on high quality and efficient processes and as a result they opt for quality assurance systems from System Brunner. In the last two years, five QuadTech inline color control systems with Instrument Flight technology from System Brunner have been installed at the three large local firms Toppan, Hong Kong Economic Times (ex-Ringier Hong Kong) and Paramount Printing.
Toralph Franz, System Consultant at System Brunner, who carried out all installations at the customers mentioned above, reports: «Generally speaking, the trend towards ever higher quality is also noticeable in the booming Asian market, and this demands efficient production of the widest variety of print jobs in compliance with different standardization methods. It is above all the globally oriented print buyers who demand that their print services providers from the Far East comply with references in accordance with ISO 12647-2 or the G7 method. In order to meet all these requirements, more and more commercial printers in this region are investing in the high-end Instrument Flight color control technology that has been proven several hundred times over.»
The advantage of this color control technology for the printers lies in the System Brunner color/gray balance control that ensures consistent color during production, even with difficult images. Furthermore, the software also provides unique functions such as the Balance Navigator and ensures flexibility and compliance with international standards and methods like Globalstandard, ISO, G7, etc., whereby Globalstandard from System Brunner is the most comprehensive standard definition and combines the parameters of the other concepts. With the new option Instrument Flight +L*a*b*, that was installed at the Hong Kong Economic Times with the third Instrument Flight System at the end of 2011 and started up at the beginning of 2012, System Brunner has taken another step forward in the field of standardization and color control.
In addition to the more than 30 process parameters used for balance control, the L*a*b* measured values and their deviation to the respective references are now included in color control as well. The system compares the data, automatically makes the necessary corrections, and sends the appropriate signals to the ink key control. The comprehensive evaluation possibilities simplify analysis of the working processes. With Instrument Flight + L*a*b*, one can establish the production workflow with an efficiency never before achieved.
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Photo: Paramount Printing (Hong Kong)
From the left: Mr. Law Kin Fai (Manager Print), Mr. Yum Tak Hung (Production Director), Toralph Franz (System Consultant at System Brunner).