Sun Chemical Dispenser Program Wins Environmental Award at the Canadian Printing Awards

The Sun Chemical Dispenser Program won a bronze medal in the category of the most environmentally progressive printing technology at the first annual Canadian Printing Awards held during the Graphics Canada trade show.

Launched in June 2010 in partnership with GFI Innovations, the Sun Chemical Dispenser Program was created to help manage what has typically resulted in an overabundance of spot color inventories at print shops and to reduce the possibility of using the wrong spot color.

To date, selected customers in Canada that participated in the Sun Chemical Dispenser Program have seen their spot color ink inventories reduce by approximately 20 percent. Additionally, as a best case scenario when participating in the dispenser program, a printer has decreased their overall ink spend by up to 35 percent when blending the inks in-house and up to 46 percent if the blended inks were directly purchased.

“The Sun Chemical Dispenser Program not only is helping our customers reduce their ink spend significantly, it is also benefitting their green initiatives,” said Rod Staveley, president of Sun Chemical Canada. “This award recognizes that one of the best ways to improve a sustainability program at a printing facility is to prevent waste from being created in the first place. This program allows our customers to mix only the amount of ink they need, reduce their inventories, and consistently match colors accurately the first time.”

Commercial printers that participate in the program can receive the savings and a GFI MX12 dispensing unit along with color repeatability and accuracy, to within .001/lb, of their colors. The dispensing unit is provided to the printer at no cost by purchasing a minimum annual amount of Sun Chemical bases and inks. Printers that sign up for the program will have better control and can provide a faster turnaround to meet the demands of their print jobs since they don’t need to wait for color inks to be delivered.

Through the Dispenser Program, a printer has access to more than 100,000 colors through Sun Chemical’s SmartColour Global Shade Library. If a printer has a spectrophotometer, they can upload the color data obtained through the readings to a secure website for their color formula, or a sample can be mailed to the nearest local Sun Chemical location. Taking this information, customers will then receive via email the color formula they need to mix the color on-site.