GFI ink mixer and Pantone "tweaked" recipe names per stock

[dub]

I was wondering how everyone else is dealing with naming conventions when it comes to ink mixed on their GFI that has to be tweaked from the "canned" Pantone recipe.

Basically while the formulas that were loaded into the machine by our ink vendor may work great on say a really high quality C1-S type stock, we print only on recycled clay coated board and most have to be tweaked to come close to the Pantone swatch book.

So instead of destroying the integrity of the oem recipe for the Pantone color, we have been saving the altered recipe to a house name/ number system once the new draw down is approved. While this is necessary to get the correct color, it has caused many problems in production due to the obscure name for example, a reformulated Pantone 200 will be called "SF-10125" with the SF being for special formula with a excel file being the only cross reference between the actual Pantone match and the stock that it was drawn down on.

This means to keep things straight we have to make sure that all job tickets etc. use this naming convention including the proofs and plates and CIP data so the pressmen will have a chance at knowing what color to use.

Logically there just has to be a better way to keep track like calling an altered color "Pantone 200 SBS" or "Pantone 200 SUS" that way everyone knows the pantone match and what stock it is to run on.

So does anyone have any suggestions?

thanks,
Dub

 

[CKL]

Are you running a spectro device? The GFI we are running does not have one and color matches can be very time consuming.

I send wet samples in for an ingredient break down then load the results in the GFI. It seems to difficult to have more than one GFI operator. Color Matches & Inventory etc.

 

[dub]

Yes we have a spectro in our ink lab and measure wet samples and tweak and adjust until we are with in 1-DE of the Pantone color and then call it a match. We to sometimes will do the match and then send out the wet sample along with the formula used to have our vendor do the big batches. Yes it is all very time consuming and frustrating at times.

Our biggest problem currently is how we name the ink recipes and the confusion that it causes. We have also found that mixing larger batches when doing matches yields better results like 1.5lb vs. .5lb.

How do you keep track of adjusted Pantone formulas and what do you name them as?

-Dub

 

[Bob Peterson]

Dub,

There are a few different ways you could label and track your mixes. I assume by your initial post that you are a folding carton printer due to the mention of SBS , SUS, ect.

As you had mentioned you could label them (SUS Pantone 200 Red, SBS Pantone 200 Red). This method would be exceptable providing that as the shade of the stock changes from lot to lot, or that you are trying to reprint and match something that has yellowed off isn't an issue.

We provide every match with a formula number. Each formula has a description and a memo that explains why we created the match, what stock it was matched on, what we matched the color to.

You could create a excel spread sheet that that has a row for each of the Pantone numbers and a column referencing each custom formula for each PMS number.

I hope this is helpful.

Bob

 

[dub]

Thanks for the Reply Bob. We are trying to start up our spread sheet in a similar fashion but I have question for you.

How do you designate in production the formula number that is to be used? Does your prepress use the formula number vs. the Pantone number in their files, proofs, plates or do they stick with the Pantone number and the formula is just noted on the job ticket.

That is our issue now is defining the process and how to incorporate the formula number so it will be consistent thru production and not cause issues. This will also cause all re-run jobs to have to be reworked to be designated as the formula name vs. the original Pantone or other name in order to be the same.

How do you approach this issue?

 

[CKL]

We do not have too many color tweaks(yet).
Right now, I have some colors marked PMS 123 & PMS 123 A. Saving the adjusted color formula then trying the new color as a standard.

Happy mixing

 

[Bob Peterson]

Dub,

I have always found it most effective to reference the formula number rather then a job number. This way you can use the formula for different jobs and or customers providing the color is acceptable.

Bob