Intelligent Quality Care with IQ-501

The need to address a number of production issues prompted Portuguese commercial printer Ligrate-Atelier Gráfico’s investment in a Konica Minolta AccurioPress C6085 with IQ-501 Intelligent Quality Care.Ligrate-Atelier Gráfico, from Amadora, near Lisbon, has been established for more than 30 years and has built up a team of qualified and skilled professionals to produce high quality work. It is committed to helping customers through all stages of design, creation and printing. As such it works closely with schools of architecture and design on diverse offset and digital print jobs from stationery to the most sophisticated colour work.

Key business drivers for investment

Ligrate-Atelier Gráfico was finding too much time was being spent on color calibration and the results were not always acceptable. In fact, it calculated that up to 35 % of waste was generated by a lack of colour consistency in the run. Also, customers were returning up to 10 % of jobs because the colour differed from what had been approved.

Colour variations were being experienced during long runs as well. This meant Ligrate-Atelier Gráfico had to print more than was needed and then choose the best print to deliver. Production efficiency and costs were also being impacted by problems with registration and with some stages of the finish­ing process - business cards in particular were generating 20 % of waste.

Konica Minolta solution

The Konica Minolta AccurioPress C6085 with IQ-501 Intel­ligent Quality Care was chosen after an assessment of all the applications Ligrate-Atelier Gráfico was producing in digital. Konica Minolta considered the applications being produced in offset that could be migrated to digital, pre-production pro­cesses and the difficulties the operation had with the current equipment. The paper grades used were even reviewed. The final convincer was a tailored press demonstration that proved to be a highly effective showcase. This showed Ligrate-Atelier Gráfico that Konica Minolta understood its particular business needs and could deliver a complete solution that answered them.

The 1,200 x 1,200 dpi AccurioPress C6085 achieves superior productivity at 85 ppm, and identical high-speed printing for a wide range of paper weights. It can produce a wide range of print applications on grades from 52 gsm to 400 gsm as well as embossed paper and envelopes. It enables finishing versatility with booklet making, perfect binding, auto ring binding.

IQ-501 makes best use of the speed and efficiency of CCD scanning and the accuracy of spectrophotometry. The result is automatic, in-line and highly accurate measurement of colours and registration. Colour targets can be set within the control­ler software at the start of a run, and IQ-501 Intelligent Quality Care ensures that colour density and fidelity remain constant throughout the print run by checking each sheet in real time, with a closed-loop feedback system ensuring continual adjust­ment where necessary. Perfect front and back registration are also assured, with automatic adjustment of image position, skew and rotation, and there is no slowdown. Printer profiling is quick and simple, too.

Key benefits

As a result of the improved calibration Ligrate-Atelier Gráfico expects to make a significant saving in five years. Further sav­ings are anticipated thanks to a 40 % time saving. The opera­tion is also enjoying the fact that jobs are no longer being re­turned and there are no more issues with the registration. This partly due to the fact the press is calibrated every day and will run repeat orders without any problems. This means jobs can be produced offset or digitally without any colour variation.

Ligrate-Atelier Gráfico especially liked IQ-501’s ability to per­form automatic adjustments through Intelligent Quality Care as well. It can improve print quality, accuracy and consistency, minimise uneven density with density variation adjustment, through Intelligent Quality Care achieve best solids and high quality colour reproduction thanks to colour density control as well as smoothest gradations through exact colour repro­duction.

Another plus was the automatic adjustment of front to back registration for every paper type, image position, size, skew and rotation and consistent and accurate real time colour and registration adjustment on the fly.