Weymouth, MA – CMYK Distributors, Inc., the exclusive distributor of Swiss manufacturer Digital Information’s products in North America, today announces the installation of Digital Information’s world-renown InkZone Ink-Presets and Closed Loop solutions at the D’Addario in-plant printing facility in Farmingdale, NY. 

D’Addario, a family-owned manufacturer of musical instrument accessories with roots dating back to 17^th century Italy, employs more than 900 people at its facility in Farmingdale.  They are the largest music string manufacturer in the world.  The company produces several of their own lines of strings, as well as manufacturing strings for other musical instrument companies.  In addition, they produce and distribute musical accessories including guitar cables, tuners, straps, picks, drumheads, premium snare wires, practice pads, drum sticks, and reeds and mouthpieces for woodwind instruments. 

Demonstrating their commitment to efficiency and controlling costs, D’Addario operates a busy in-house ad agency and in-plant printing division including a prepress department, press room, finishing, and bindery allowing nearly all of their package design and print advertising to be created in-house.  The D’Addario in-plant is anchored by a 29 inch Heidelberg SM74 press and capably managed by Wayne Carbone, Printing Manager. 

“Our Heidelberg is a true workhorse, enabling us to turn out approximately 16 million packages for guitar strings per year,” said Wayne Carbone.  “However, we needed to bring its capabilities up to speed with a comprehensive pressroom automation solution that would help us to streamline our workflow, improve quality and reduce wasted time and materials.  InkZone Ink Presets and Closed Loop technology was the answer.”

Digital Information’s revolutionary InkZone product line delivers state-of-the-art ink key presetting technology for offset presses via network, as well as closed-loop color solutions for digital ink control on offset presses from all leading manufacturers.  With InkZone, D’Addario’s in-plant pressroom is significantly enhanced in terms of reducing make ready time, decreasing paper waste, and increasing productivity.  And, with the BestMatch feature, D’Addario is now able to print according to ISO standards and to drive spot colors into LAB targets. With InkZone, D’Addario is a more consistent and productive operation.

“We are delighted to welcome D’Addario to our distinguished customer base.” said Mark Williams, Director of Sales for CMYK Distributors.  “When D’Addario’s in-plant division was exploring options for a cost-effective and innovative way to automate their 29 inch Heidelberg SM74, they turned to CMYK Distributors and we introduced them to Digital Information’s InkZone Ink Presetting and Closed Loop software and X-Rite's IntelliTrax scanner.” 

D’Addario’s goals were to improve quality control, reduce make-ready time and paper waste and to enhance overall pressroom efficiency.  InkZone ink-presets and closed loop technology with an X-Rite IntelliTrax scanner proved to be the solution of choice for D’Addario.  With InkZone, the accuracy of the data being sent to the press is consistent and D’Addario is now able to achieve run-to color more quickly than ever before.