Consistency is key to success for Michigan commercial printing firm that added the Sentinel system on its sheetfed-offset press; more efficiency is a byproduct.

CARROLLTON, TX – Sentinel, a global leader in automated ink management systems, last year delivered a Sentinel iPro to Verdant Graphics. Verdant Graphics employs 15 people full-time who presently run a single shift at its 15,000-square-foot plant in the city of Grand Rapids, MI, situated some 30 miles east of Lake Michigan. Now expanded to a general commercial shop, Verdant has 13-year roots planted as an in-plant shop primarily producing greeting cards for wholesaler Design Design. As the new press has been able to print higher volumes much more quickly, controlling output quality is of paramount importance.

Sentinel Ink Management SystemUsing cartridges, the Sentinel system “facilitates even [ink] flow and consistency,” notes Don Kallil, Verdant’s owner and chief vision officer. “The ink-management solution really helps to keep our quality equal throughout the course of a run – the job at the end has to be as good as the job at the start.” The net result, he adds, is that certain sections of the form are drawing ink at various levels and in different amounts.

“Sentinel iPro is the leading cartridge-based ink dispensing system for offset presses,” states Dave Doucette, Director of Sales, Sentinel Ink Systems. “iPro’s electronic eye monitors the amount of ink in the fountain, and automatically replaces it just where it is needed. This allows printers to reduce run waste from overfilling, ink spoilage and skinning, allows faster color changes, and by maintaining a consistent level of ink it eliminates color variation during the print run.” The ink-management system is installed on the firm’s RMGT 920, an eight-color, sheetfed-offset perfecting press featuring LED-UV technology.

Less labor, more sustainability
Beyond the ink density factor, there is labor reduction with Sentinel, too. “With the size of this press, there are eight large [ink] wells,” says Kallil, adding that his previous printing technology was on a smaller scale: a quarter-size (14x20-inch) digital press. “There’s no manual adjusting, so we don’t have to hire someone to stand up on those printing units. With iPro, the inking process is all automated from the press console,” he points out, “and the operator doesn’t have to worry about ink levels.”

The word verdant means “vibrantly green with grass and rich vegetation,” and the sustainability angle is not lost on Verdant’s leader. “We are printing more while using and wasting less ink in the process. That’s important to our world,” Kallil believes.

The Sentinel iPro system from Pamarco is easy to cost-justify, he concludes, “because ink is flowing at the proper levels, where it needs to be. Our overall efficiency is better.” With the new press and inking technology in place, Verdant has the capacity for growth. Kallil and his team already have hired one salesperson and are set to hire two more. “We’d like to be running two shifts by the end of 2024,” he reports. “Our eventual goal is to be a three-shift operation.”