GFI MX6 ink mixing machine

[uneedink]

Has anyone purchased or currently using the GFI MX6 ink dispensor/mixer? If so has it been successful?

 

[roger]

We have one. And yes, it's been successful for us. - Roger - J.S.McCarthy Printers

 

[uneedink]

Do you have to make adds to the initial batches? Are your customers color critical? I'm trying to really do some homework to see if this is a worthwhile investment. Thanks for any input

 

[CKL]

Do you mix in house now? I miss the service from the ink rep. I upload and make custom colors in house now and it is time consuming.The money you save on ink you spend on labor in some cases.

 

[uneedink]

Right now I'm just exploring the return on investment. My biggest question is initial accuracy

 

[roy35ka]

We have had MX6 for about a month. Our vendor talked us into switching to Hostman ink at the same time. We have very color critical customers. Most matches have been good, but we have had a few that have been quite a bit off. The installer claimed that the key to the system working well was the quality of the database which is provided by the ink manufacturer. He also claimed that Van Son was by far the best in this area. Since this is the ink we were using with good success, we plan on switching back. Not sure I would do this again.

 

[uneedink]

When you say doing this again do you mean switching ink vendors or getting the GFI Mixer?

 

[macphenom]

Had one for 8 months now. Love it. We use VanSon inks and their database is the most accurate out there. They are constantly getting feedback from the field on the formulas and update their database several times a year. We have virtually eliminated old unused inks sitting around on the shelf.

 

[Internal_R&D_Analyst]

If you are a volume user the ink manufacturer will provide this for free often with a 2-year contract. Done it more then once now.

 

[inkmaster2011]

Mainly Depends on your CUSTOMER types

Mainly Depends on your CUSTOMER types

The machine can not take the place of an ink tech/color matcher. All these people talking about VanSon database being the best and so forth, yes some databases are more in line. Point is if you contact PANTONE and ask them for their own CONTROLLED ink samples, which all Pantone approved ink companies get each year to then submit their own ink samples to get Pantone's approval to say Pantone Certified, and ask the Pantone REP if I mix exactly per the PMS Book with your Pantone supplied bases do you guarantee the color will match, their response will be it is called a Pantone GUIDE for a reason and will say no they won't. Stock briteness, absorbancy, ink strengths all vary, no ink company can make every batch of Reflex Blue 100% rite on, so variations exist. Why do you think they tell you have to buy a proofer with the equipment. If you are a high end commercial printer this machine does not pay for itself. you can buy a pantone scale and mixer and do the same thing for about 3,000$ total because you still need someone in the end who can mix, finish, match the final color being mixed...if the batches are larger normally again, waist of time, machine uses 8# tubes you can only get from GFI so you pay a premium for the packaging so a 20# means you have to hang around and fill tubes to just make that color. You can buy mixmaster software due the same thing for 99$ a year including working off your PMS colors and custom corporate colors, track cost.

If you are a smaller shop and do alot of colors, like a large envelope shop and your customers aren't usually color critical then it a good deal.. but if you are a high end shop and think this machine will do it all, ask your ink company and GFI to 100% guarantee the batches dispensed will match the book on the stock you are running that day or that job. see what they say.. Sorry but nothing has been made yet that takes the place of human intervention in getting to a final color that your customer will approve on any given stock on any given day. Let alone allow for 2% variation in ink strengths...