SOUTH HOLLAND, IL - Calumet Carton Company, based in South Holland, IL, recently installed the Rutherford Graphic Products IntelliSet and IntelliLoop systems on their KBA 142 and KBA 105 offset presses. And the difference has been incredible — in the first 6 months of use, the company saw an average decrease of about 40% in their makeready times and more consistent color throughout all of their jobs.

The two systems are designed to bring color automation to presses that don’t come equipped with the capability, or on older presses that still have useful life left, but need a modern update. IntelliSet is the first part of the puzzle — with it, shops take coverage data derived from the imposed file and run it through the software, which then pre-sets the ink keys, getting the press about 80% of the way to color targets before a single sheet has been run. IntelliLoop works with the X-Rite IntelliTrax2 Automated Color Management Solution, which measures the color bars on sheets as they come off the press, automatically making the final adjustments to ensure perfect color in a closed loop process. In addition, IntelliLoop can be used throughout the press run, to ensure color remains on target from the first sheet to the last.

“We do a lot of work for different major brands, all of which require rigorous color control from start to finish,” said Bob Byrne, plant manager, Calumet Carton Company. “We also do a lot of white label work, that needs to match between runs, and between machines, and now we can do that easily.”

Having confidence in their color consistency, and being able to do shorter runs more profitably because of the reduced makeready times has allowed Calumet Carton Company to streamline their workflow and take on work that, before, would have been a stretch. “We can take on new business we never would have considered before,” said Byrne. “It would have caused a lot of stress and anxiety before, not knowing if we could hit the targets. With Rutherford and X-Rite, we now have the right tools in place to help us do that.” These customers, he said, often require the shop to fingerprint the press and give them the profiles, so Byrne said that even their 4-color process work is controlled to a far finer tolerance than many shops would require.

The results speak for themselves. “Our operators love the system,” said Byrne. “They are nothing but complimentary about it — it is a great tool they’ve been given to help them do their jobs better.” Roughly 60-70% of Calumet Carton Company’s work is repeat jobs, which makes it even more critical that they are able to quickly match colors and bring the press back into alignment to ensure it’s perfect, every time. “Before, we would save a job’s data, and then pull it back up, but the adjustments would run us around, going too far each way as we adjusted for things like the weather, heat, etc. on any given day. Now, with Rutherford Graphic Products’ systems, it does all those adjustments automatically. The system is better calibrated to the ink keys, and it makes all the right moves, in the right increments, to pull the color in faster.”

Rutherford Graphic Products and X-Rite will be exhibiting at PRINT 17, showing this combined solution at the RGP booth #134. Demonstrations of both IntelliLoop and IntelliSet will be showcased alongside the X-Rite IntelliTrax2 technology so shops can see the difference first hand. For more information, visit http://www.rgproducts.com.