Operating cartridge-loaded Sentinel systems on 3 offset presses for a decade, California folding carton shop has 120 months’ worth of metrics to support ROI.

CARROLLTON, TX – Sentinel, a global leader in automated ink management systems, first delivered a Sentinel iPro to Superior Lithographics some 10 year ago. The West Coast printing firm since has acquired two additional Sentinel iPro ink-management systems for a trio of large-format Rapida sheetfed-offset presses manufactured by Koenig & Bauer: a 57-inch 145 model, a 64-inch 164 and an 81-inch 205.

Sentinel iProSuperior Litho specializes in printing cut-sheet litho labels and paperboard folding carton packaging. “Most of our litho label and top sheet work is done for the corrugated industry,” explains Cory Baumann, print production manager. Its three mega machines sit on the production floor of the company’s 115,000-square-foot paperboard packaging print facility in Vernon, CA, five miles south of Downtown Los Angeles. Some 120 full-time employees work at the plant, which operates multiple shifts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to Baumann.

“In our packaging space, we run tons of spot colors and can do 10, 15, up to 20 color changes per day,” he reports. The job variety keeps members of the three-person press operating crews on their toes. And, Baumann says, managing all those spot colors really is where the Sentinel dispensers shine. “They are a much more efficient way to handle ink. We don’t need to ‘manage’ the process because the systems do all the work,” he notes, going on to cite three main benefits of automated consumables management via iPro:

• Real-time tracking and traceability: “Running out of ink is almost a non-issue on the Sentinels.”
• Cleaner printing: “We use less ink due to the decreased waste in fountains.”
• It’s easier on operators, who can simply “load cartridges and walk away, which frees up a significant percentage of their time for other tasks.”

David Doucette, sales director for Sentinel Ink Management Systems, explains the technology: “Sentinel iPro’s electronic eye monitors the amount of ink in the fountains and automatically replaces it just where needed. This way, it reduces run waste from overfilling, ink spoilage and skinning -- and also allows for faster color changes.” In addition, by maintaining a consistent level of ink, color variations are eliminated during print runs. “The Sentinel delivers a consistent bead of ink and eliminates the change in color density,” Doucette says, “providing consistency from sheet 1 to 10,000.”

Reducing ink waste is a major cost factor for Superior Litho due, in large part, to BRC (Brand Reputation through Compliance) global food safety standards in place for much of the packaging that Superior prints. “We cannot reuse these inks,” Baumann concludes. “Efficiency becomes a big issue because, at the end of a run, we [need to] throw away as little as possible.”