Solution enables production target densities to be reached in as fast as 20 minutes
X-Rite Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Pantone LLC, today announces that the Glasgow-based academic book and journal printer Bell & Bain has purchased the IntelliTrax colour management scanning solution to manage their on-press colour control. IntelliTrax is X-Rite's advanced, automated color management scanning for press-side color control, and Bell & Bain will include the solution in their state-of-the-art production platform.
Founded in 1831, Bell & Bain is one of the few Scottish academic printers to have survived the centuries to thrive in today's ultra-competitive market. With more than 80 employees, the company has a turnover in excess of £9 million and has more than 150 customers, including most of the blue-chip names in international publishing.
The company operates three large format KBA Rapida 142 offset presses and a new B2 four-colour Rapida 75 with coater. The latest KBA press purchase was part of Bell & Bain's investment program, which has helped the firm increase turnover by 50% since 2005, and win new business that includes a portfolio of work in the fine arts sector.
To support that success, Bell & Bain acquired X-Rite's IntelliTrax scanning color measurement system with the IntelliSetTM Closed-Loop Color Control System from Rutherford Graphic Products.
Scott Hill, Print Manager at Bell & Bain commented on the impact of the IntelliTrax system has had on their operations. He notes, "Our initial IntelliTrax investment has made a huge difference to our operations – both in accuracy and in speed. First, the integration of the Rutherford closed loop capability that feeds
information back to the press makes duct key changes even more accurate. In addition, the IntelliTrax solution is a lot faster, cutting our make ready time in half and significantly reducing waste. With IntelliTrax, we can reach target densities in 20 minutes - and that's for large format four-over-four printing. On the older system, it generally took 24 minutes for four-colour make-readies, and that was only one side of the sheet, so this is a significant improvement."
Ultra-fast scanning
X-Rite's IntelliTrax automatically scans the colour bar of a typical press sheet in less than 15 seconds. It can measure special colours, PANTONE® colours, non-process colours, and paper colour. Instant reports are then created and displayed on-screen. This enables press operators to quickly make adjustments that get them to approved colour faster.
According to David Stewart, Sales Manager UK, Imaging, Media & Packaging of X-Rite, "The results that Bell & Bain have experienced with IntelliTrax are exactly the types of results that we had hoped for when we developed this solution. We knew that if we could speed up both the color measurement and the correction processes, printers would be able to gain greater efficiencies and achieve a higher color standard. We congratulate Bell & Bain on their success."
Bell & Bain's Intellitrax was installed in conjunction with Rutherford's AutoPilot, a software solution that delivers fast and cost-effective off-line closed-loop colour control. It seamlessly integrates with pressroom colour control systems, and its ease of use makes staff training and operation simple.
Scott Hill concludes, "All in all, our upgraded X-Rite IntelliTrax with Rutherford AutoPilot has improved our productivity, decreased turnaround time and freed our press operators to plan ahead on their shift, while maintaining the highest quality colour across all of our work."
