Sun Chemical’s Solaris Colorsat Drives Ink Efficiencies

Sun Chemical announced that Label Makers has become the first UK customer to benefit from Sun Chemical’s Solaris Colorsat automatic ink mixing and dispensing system. The company has installed the machine to optimize its inventory control and increase the efficiency of its ink mixing processes.

Sun Chemical’s Solaris Colorsat is a “plug and play” system that is designed to help high-batch frequency users mix UV-curing, water-based flexo, screen and gravure inks to a high level of accuracy at the touch of a button. The high level of automation offered by the Solaris Colorsat has had the effect of reducing Label Makers’ ink stock and has helped increase the flexibility of company funds that were required previously to maintain appropriate stocks of consumable products.  In addition, the Solaris Colorsat’s Windows based ink management software, which delivers precise color formulations to customer’s exact specification at speed, has had the effect of reducing mixing times at the company by 50 percent.

“The Solaris Colorsat has had a very positive impact on our ink management processes,” David Webster, managing director at Bradford -based Label Makers, said. “The method that we had in place before meant we were manually weighing and mixing 5kg tubs of ink at a time, storing the tubs in the warehouse and then searching the shelves for the right color by looking at the Pantone reference, which could be extremely time consuming.

“The Solaris Colorsat has eradicated the inconvenience of both storing and searching for the mixed inks,” Mr. Webster added. “It automatically retrieves base inks directly through pipes from the main Sun Chemical ink reservoirs, mixes the colors required and then dispenses the made up Pantone colors into tubs ready for the press.  We employ the Solaris Colorsat to mix around 80 percent of the inks we use for our flexo presses and it provides us with a cleaner, more efficient and highly accurate way of mixing the exact color specifications we require for the brand colors adopted by a number of high-profile customers.”

Label Makers, which is a privately owned company that employs 60 employees, was established in 1964. It has a £6million annual turnover and produces a wide range of multi-process color labels for industrial and consumer products, including wines and spirits, toiletries, household goods and foodstuffs, as well as promotional and back labels. The company owns four litho presses, three flexo presses and six letterpresses; full design and pre-press facilities; and offers a scope of label finishing services.

Commenting on Sun Chemical’s first UK Solaris Colorsat sale, Tony Palmer, business director of Sun Chemical’s packaging division said, “We are delighted that the Solaris Colorsat installation at Label Makers is having such a positive impact on the company’s operation and that Sun Chemical has succeeded in providing a tailor-made solution to meet this valued customer’s specific requirements.  The introduction of the Solaris Colorsat system, which was launched late in 2007, demonstrates Sun Chemical’s dedication to providing innovative, time saving and profit enhancing systems for companies that operate in specialized printing sectors such as the narrow web arena, as well as in all other key printing areas across the board.”