GSE Dispensing, a provider of lean ink management solutions for packaging printers, has enhanced its Colorsat Slim gravimetric dispenser with optimal dosage accuracy and easier user-friendliness. Designed to provide flexo and gravure ink colours on-demand for flexible packaging and carton-board print situations, the Colorsat Slim includes a sturdier weighing unit that weighs dosages up to a maximum 25kg to an accuracy of just 1g.

Furthermore, a new wet and dry cleaning unit cleans the system after each dispense cycle, saving maintenance time. Key components such as the label printer and barcode scanner have been integrated into the control console. The addition of quick couplers to the hoses connecting the ink barrels to the dispenser makes faster, cleaner exchange of barrels possible, without risk of dripping. The redesign of the dispense head enables height adjustments to accommodate buckets of maximum 470mm.

Accommodating a maximum of 20 base colours, the Colorsat Slim mixes and dispenses a four-colour 20kg recipe of water-, UV- or solvent-based ink in under four minutes. Powered by GSE’s proprietary Ink Management Software IMS, which provides a user friendly interface, the Slim offers a means of achieving exact volume requirements without performing complex, time-consuming manual calculations. Any excess ink left over from a print job can be easily calculated into new recipes, thus greatly reducing waste. The dispensing speed allows greater flexibility in job scheduling, with lower risk of bottlenecks at make-ready stage. Since its 2004 launch, the Slim has a large global installed base. Several customers report being able to improve ink yields by over 30 percent as a result of installation. 

Anne Lourens, managing director at GSE Dispensing, comments: “The finer accuracy and range of practical enhancements in the relaunched Colorsat Slim gives the printer added reassurance of achieving brand owners’ need for more sophisticated unique colours, while keeping make-ready times to a minimum. This provides the ideal solution for maintaining a lean operation without compromising quality, including in situations where flexiblility and shorter production runs are the norm.”