To control the colour consistency throughout the printing process, it is common practice to remove sample material from the running web and to measure it offline with a hand spectral photometer. This process always means a disruption of production. eltromat GmbH presented its world premiere “inco_check” at the drupa. This new spectral colour measurement system integrates the measurement process into the printing press. Thus, the company from Leopoldshoehe (Germany) sets a new standard in colour control.

What is unique is that “inco_check” can be tuned to any existing hand spectral photometer. This enables the printer to compare the real time spectral measurement results from the press directly with the offline measuring values, regardless of the hand spectral photometer type.

According to the manufacturer eltromat, who looks back on more than 10 years of experience in developing solutions for colour measurement and control, "inco_check" is particularly interesting for packaging and label printing, because it even measures special colours accurately and reliably.

During production the system operates at printing speeds of up to 600 m/min and regularly and accurately provides spectral measuring results at up to 12 measuring points. The measuring points can be set easily by finger-tipping in the print control strip or anywhere in the printing format. Thus, the colour consistancy can be monitored at any time and at important points during the production process.

During the measurement the exact colour values (as L*a*b*C*H*), the colour variations (as dEab, dEcmc or dE2000), the history and the trend of the measurement results are displayed. All measurement results can be exported using the universal format CxF (Color exchange Format) and thus are made available for further processing. If tolerance violations occur, they are recorded in a roll protocol which can serve as quality documentation.