Gurnee, IL -- The state of Texas has an illustrious history and so does Aus Tex Printing & Mailing in Austin.  One of the largest printers in the state's capitol and in business since 1946, Aus Tex counts more than 4,000 satisfied customers and remains busy despite today's economy.  Giving their clients reasons to keep coming back, Aus Tex has managed to walk the fine line of competitive pricing by reducing the cost to do business.  One way is by mixing their own ink, something they have done the last two years since purchasing an Mx6 Ink Formulation Dispenser from GFI Innovations.

"Time is money and the Mx6 has saved us both.  We use it every day," said Howie Schwartz, Aus Tex production manager for the last seven years.  "It is unique and saves us time from job to job.  We weighed the cost of buying ink versus mixing it ourselves and it has proven to be a very good deal for us."

It's proven to be a good deal for their customers, too.  Aus Tex, which currently runs two shifts six-days-a-week, won six Premier Print awards in 2008.  Specializing in quick turnaround, they were recognized for their work with annual reports, pocket folders and invitations, but they also handle some interesting jobs with packaging, CD and DVD packaging, brochures, catalogs and direct mail.  An all-Heidelberg press shop, they have a division that handles ad specialties products.  It all adds up to using plenty of solids and PMS colors, one of the reasons why Aus Tex made the investment in GFI's ink dispenser.

"The Mx6 is very steady and extremely accurate.  We've been doing this for two years and we've never had a problem matching colors," said Schwartz, a former art director who has worked at Aus Tex for the last 20 years.  "It is very consistent and most of the time we use it to mix five pounds of ink, which we can do in less than 10 minutes.  Sometimes we mix 20 pounds of ink at a time and we've done up to 40 pounds.  This dispenser makes life here a lot easier."

Most of their customers are private companies in Houston and Austin, which is home to the University of Texas and one of the printer's customers.  Aus Tex manages projects for some of the university's departments and prints magazines, booklets and calendars.  Having the Mx6 is a valuable commodity with its patented dispensing process, ink control system, quick-change Accurex cylinders and innovative software.

"We do runs up to 400,000 copies and one of the magazines we print contains up to 100 pages with lots of solids," explained Schwartz.  "We have plenty of jobs that call for 4-color process and some require spot colors.  That's how this dispenser gives us an advantage.  Before, if we had to call an ink manufacturer, they might have a few orders in front of us.  We'd have to wait on them unless we had another job waiting and ready to go.  That's time and money there.  With the dispenser, it adds up to some big savings."

No job is too big or too tough for Aus Tex and its Mx6 ink dispenser.

"Most times we plug in what we need for a job and – bingo! - you can walk away and it's ready in a few minutes," Schwartz said.  "We print boxes and box lids for one of our customers and they are very specific about their colors.  This requires us to do some tweaking with the machine but we don't have to guess because the scale is very accurate.  We use the dispenser's software to capture the ink setting information and save it for the next time."

GFI Innovations leads the industry in Ink Formulation Dispensing, including its patented Mx Series technologies.  The company offers a range of dispensing systems and accessories for paste inks, along with advanced software for ink formulation and inventory management.  For more information, contact Bob Wolff with The Drucker Group at 312.867.4960.