Sewickly, PA -- May 6, 2008 -- PIA/GATF's Technical Research Department recently unveiled a number of new marketing opportunities available to its ISO 2846 ink conformance testing clients.

Because customers continue to demand higher quality materials, ink suppliers need to make their conformance to the ISO standard more visible to customers. PIA/GATF recognizes this need and is now offering the following benefits to manufacturers submitting inks that are determined to be compliant:

    •    Inclusion in the directory of PIA/GATF-tested, ISO 2846 compliant inks on www.piagatfinktesting.org/iso2846

    •    Use of the PIA/GATF Conformance Tested logo on marketing materials and packaging

    •    Two conformance certificates per ink set

    •     A report indicating their conformance

To promote consistency and quality, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) developed the ISO 2846 conformance standard for color and transparency of process printing inks. For over a decade, PIA/GATF has been a leading provider of ISO 2846 conformance testing.

When a vendor's ink sets are tested and found compliant to ISO 2846 standards, printers can be sure that the inks they purchase will perform in a reliable, consistent manner. Additionally, printers participating in quality practices such as ISO 12747 and G7 are required to use ink sets that are ISO 2846-compliant. Printers can now visit www.piagatfinktesting.org/iso2846 to see a list of inks whose conformance has been verified by PIA/GATF.

All types of lithographic, flexographic, and gravure inks are able to be evaluated for ISO 2846 conformance, including sheetfed and web conventional, heatset, coldset, UV, hybrid, UV, solvent, and water-based ink sets.

The ISO 2846 standard provides color (CIE Lab) and transparency specifications for four-color printing inks. The colorimetric portion of the standard requires that each color be within a specified Delta E tolerance at an ink film thickness range provided in the standard. The transparency portion of the standard involves printing over a black substrate at varying ink film thicknesses and measuring the ability of the ink film to transmit light.

For more information on ISO ink conformance testing, visit www.piagatfinktesting.org or email [email protected].