Profile Tweaks or Reprofiles?

[QualityPrint]

Just trying to conduct a poll regarding how often other printers reprofile or tweak their profiles. We profile to G7 specifications and usually tweak every couple of months and reprofile if some big change occurs i.e. new ink or new rollers. Due to many variables press conditions move slightly but at what point do you draw the line. What measurable conditions lead you to reprofile. We set a zero point on press before each profile by getting our press into a repeatable stage but in my experience this "repeatable" stage isn't all that repeatable. Let me hear your thoughts on this subject and feel free to ask questions if need be.
thanks
Quality Print

 

[TerryWyse]

Are you actually re-PROFILING your presses (as in new ICC profiles) or are you simply updating your G7 plate curves?

If I may (plug alert!), you should check out SpotOn! software to monitor your press on a consistent basis. It uses a very simple color bar that generally can be included in the trim area of live jobs. The software itself does an excellent job of cataloging, tracking and reporting press conditions according to G7 as well as ISO 12647-2 print specifications. Worth a look....

SpotOn! Press Software:

Regards,
Terry

 

[QualityPrint]

When we reprofile we start from scratch with new icc profiles. The "tweaking" is when we update the G7 curves. We have used the spot on software and you are right it is great for tracking. Our free trial ran up and my company couldn't afford it at the time so I have built an excel spreadsheet to track the necessary items. This tracking showed us how much the press changes over a given time and as a result we have refined the way we do maintenance. i.e. resetting rollers, tracking blanket wear etc... We have tightened our tolerances quite a bit but based on what I have witnessed I believe that there will always be some variation in the pressroom that sooner or later you will have to account for. Am I right about this or is it possible to do one icc profile and be done with it? Basically, I would like to know how long after you do a new icc profile do you start to see that you have to alter your densities from the profiled densities.

Any more questions let me know
thanks

 

[meddington]

With good process control and maintenance, you can get a lot of milage from both plate curves and ICC profiles. When you would need to update them would depend on whether your conditions change (as a result of new consumables for example, rather than lax process control/maintenance) and you realize a deviant trend that process control no longer satisfactorily addresses. Day to day variation is inherent, but trends should not be.