Weymouth, MA – CMYK Distributors, Inc. today announces the installation of InkZone Ink-Presets and Closed Loop technology at Wilcox Printing in Madrid, Iowa.  A third-generation, family-owned commercial printing company, Wilcox Printing is a mid-sized firm with eight employees at their 9K sq. ft. facility.  Their equipment lineup features multiple top-of-the-line offset presses including a 28” 5-color Komori with a Harris and Bruno inline coater, an 8-unit Goss community newspaper press, a Canon wide format press, a Canon digital press with booklet maker, a Konica Minolta digital press, a PSI digital envelope press, as well as an automated folder, stitcher, and trimmer, etc.  Wilcox Printing is a G7-Qualified commercial print house. 

Wilcox Printing is committed to providing the highest level of service to their customers and it is not unusual for the owners to actively engage with Wilcox’s clientele, assisting with projects and offering direction so that the quality of both product and process are incomparable.  However, to remain competitive in the highly saturated mid-sized commercial printing arena depends on more than just the ability to deliver outstanding service.  Making smart investments in pressroom automation and waste reduction technology are the key to efficiency, profitability, and sustainability for the mid-sized commercial printer and Wilcox Printing did just that with the addition of InkZone Ink-Presets & Closed Loop technology on their Komori Press.   

Digital Information’s InkZone Ink-Presets & Closed Loop Solutions delivers state-of-the-art ink key presetting and closed loop color control technology for all offset presses for substantially shorter make-ready time, reduced paper waste, and considerably-improved color quality.  For Wilcox Printing this means that they’ve added the very best quality control solution available on the market and they are able to service their customers with faster, more accurate production.  

With InkZone, the interface between prepress and press is both powerful and economical.  InkZone is based on JDF technology and is fully compliant with global workflows and international standards. With InkZone, the Wilcox Printing prepress department uses InkZone DI-Plot software to send ink coverage values in the form of JDF files to InkZone Perfect for conversion to calibrated machine and print-related values for presetting the ink keys and ductor rollers. The InkZone hardware components send this data via network and in the specific format required by the press console.

“With InkZone, we have significantly decreased our makeready time and paper waste.  And, the longer we have it, the better it gets,” said Ken Williams, Owner and President of Wilcox Printing.  “Our color is even across the board, from job to job, and we are extremely satisfied with InkZone.  Also notable is the impact that InkZone has had on our employee satisfaction and the quality of our workplace.  While there is no way to quantify it, I can firmly attest to the fact that we’ve experienced a significant reduction in the stress level at Wilcox.  Thanks to InkZone, our pressmen are happier and the attitude in the pressroom is positive and upbeat.”

The InkZone Ink-Presets and Closed Loop solution features an intuitive interface and the ability to preset minimum ink-key opening thresholds, color bar configurations that encompass the full-width of all sheet sizes, color bar patches that allow for G7 compatible data readings, and a dependable CIP3 iterative learning process.  With InkZone, the data being sent to the press is highly accurate enabling Wilcox Printing to achieve run-to color significantly faster and with less waste.  

The InkZone solution at Wilcox Printing features an X-Rite spectral scanning system for the measurement of color bars.