Competitive Edge. In the Flexo world, it is the ability to match and maintain accurate and consistent color while minimizing the amount of waste. It’s the advantage of readjusting color accuracy “on-the-fly” during a press run, instead of only at a roll change or when the job is complete. The assurance of monitoring color as it is being printed at production speeds and being alerted when an “out-of-tolerance” condition is encountered. Is this the competitive edge your company is looking for?

Historically flexographic printers have been limited to using subjective “trial and error” methods to control color on press that many times fell far short of customer expectations. The inability to stop a flexo press to check color quality caused significant amounts of paper and ink to be wasted, and often the final results lacked the color consistency required by brand owners. Flexo printers simply did not have the right tools to overcome these obstacles … until now. Today you can find your competitive edge in a highly precise inline color measurement system, TECHKON SpectroEdge.

Based on TECHKON’s leading-edge color measurement technology, SpectroEdge is an inline spectrophotometer that gives flexographic press operators the ability to measure and maintain accurate color at standard production speeds, unheard of in the Flexo market. SpectroEdge reads the color bars on your sheet and instantly interprets the color values sent to your host computer. It mounts directly on the press, capturing real-time spectral data at print production speeds without the need to stop the press, and reports “on-the-fly” color variations as they occur. Imagine the savings by being able to correct color deviations right on press, and not at the end of your press run?

“Up until now, there was no easy way to measure and maintain accurate color on flexo roll-fed presses. Working in tandem with TECHKON ChromaQA software, SpectroEdge is able to produce superior results in terms of output quality, productivity and cost,” reports George Adam, TECHKON USA president and CEO. “This key enabling technology marks a turning point in the flexographic print market, driving flexo to previously unattainable levels of brand color control and efficiency for packaging service providers and their brand owner customers.”

TECHKON SpectroEdge with ChromaQA is commercially available, easily adaptable and suitable for a wide range of flexographic presses. Together their capabilities include:
SpectroEdge

• Drives color measurement of press speed  at 1000 ft/min (300 meters/min)
• Measures 3000 samples per second, reporting 31 spectral bands and providing CIE L*a*b, CIE L*C*h* and status T & E densities
• Utilizes TECHKON patent-pending automatic color bar with automatic recognition and alignment features, measuring color bars printed along the paper feed path

ChromaQA

• Color Quality Control Enterprise Software (with client server and single seat versions)
• Enables print specifiers, quality control managers and press room managers to create and manage print jobs locally or remotely, containing all required customer information, color values, and target tolerances required to print the job.
• Posts jobs to a central Internet server (or company Intranet) so multiple presses and/or plants printing the same job are all using the same target color tolerances and values
• Manages custom color libraries, analyze color quality and tracks and reports trending

At drupa 2012, all eyes will be focused on print innovation and automation … a fitting launch pad for the international debut of TECHKON SpectroEdge with ChromaQA. Define your competitive edge with SpectroEdge! Sign up for a personal product demonstration at www.techkonusa.com