This week I will be providing more information about the MacDermid Printing Solutions Stabil-X press trial April 17th and 18th . This week I will review the variation data from two of the trial conditions:
- STX opt – Stabil-X blanket run at optimum packing level
- Press std – The set-up of the press when we arrived
The TVI graph from last week showed the mean 50% dot gain for the STX opt. to be 24.817 and the Press std. to be 25.556. In addition to the lower overall dot gain with the Stabil-X, the standard deviation of the Stabil-X opt. was only .752 compared with 1.088.
The density of the two runs are very similar as well as the associated standard deviations: STX opt. 1.489 and .018; Press std. 1.522 and .016.
These two graphs plot each of the 10 samples measured for each trial condition. The graphs also show the mean as well as 3 standard deviation +/- control lines.
If you would like more information about the MacDermid Stabil-X blanket, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the right people at MacDermid.
About two weeks ago that Steve Duncan guy over at Lornitropia got me motivated to finally do something with the LinkedIn account I had created in Feb. 2005.  I took some time to update my profile, and then I just started inviting everyone I could think of to join and connect with me.  I am sure many of you reading this got an invitation to join.  All I can say is this tool has the potential to change the way we network for business and professional reasons.  I joke with my kids that it is MySpace for grownups.
In less than two weeks I have gone from the four contacts I had since last year to fifty.  Nothing compared to Steve’s 500+, but I will get there.  Why do all this, you ask?  For me it is a simple three part answer;
1.    I HATE cold calling (LinkedIn already allowed me to set-up a high level meeting with a very larger retailer).
2.    As the CEO of a small business I am ALWAYS looking for financing and M&A opportunities.
3.    I honestly like to share my knowledge and wisdom with others (My Mom would question if I have any of the later worth sharing ;-).
So, if I sent you a LinkedIn invite and you have not acted on it I would encourage you to do so.  This is not some “drink the cool-aid” cult…I promise.  If you are already LinkedIn send an invite to my ColorMetrix e-mail, I’d be happy to connect with anyone who takes the time to read my ramblings.
On April 17th and 18th I had the pleasure of participating in a press trial with MacDermid Printing Solutions to evaluate the effectiveness of their new Stabil-X offset printing blanket. I am writing today about the TVI curve of the various trial conditions.
We ran five different conditions during the course of the trial. All the trials shown in the graph involved only one printing unit running magenta ink. The curves also represent the averaging of 10 press sheets. The five trial names and descriptions are:
- STX opt - Stabil-X blanket run at optimum packing level
- Press std - The set-up of the press when we arrived
- STX -.003 - Stabil-X purposely under packed by 3 thousandths
- STX +.002 - Stabil-X run at 2 thousandths over
- STX +.004 Stabil-X run at 4 thousandths over
As one might expect the STX -.003 has not only the lowest TVI, but also a very poorly formed curve. A pretty good example of why you do not want to run your press under packed.
The Press std curve shows how this shop runs the press on a regular basis. Notice the hump in the TVI curve from 25 to 50%. Not an uncommon condition on many presses.
The STX opt curve is much smoother than the Press std curve, missing the hump from 25 to 50%. Also, run at virtually the same densities the dot gain (50%) and overall TVI is lower at all points than the normal press set-up.
Even the two STX over pack conditions produced smoother overall TVI curves than the press standard set-up. While the TVI is higher in most cases this is to be expected when adding that much squeeze to a blanket that really does not need it.
I will continue to write about this press trial for a least 2-3 more weeks. There is a great deal of data and information to still go over. I even have some sheets here I will be doing additional readings on.
If you would like more information about the MacDermid Stabil-X blanket, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the right people at MacDermid.
Over the coming weeks I will be writing a great deal about my last two days in Chicago. Kevin Kocher of MacDermid Printing Solutions (offset blanket manufacturer) invited me to a press trial of their new Stabil-X blanket. So, right about now if I was one of my readers I would be thinking how exciting can an off-set blanket be? In a word this blanket is cool. It truly is the first revolutionary technology change in blankets in decades. In short this blanket is a patented combination of a polymer backing (instead of fabric) with Kevlar fibers running through it as well as synthetic fibers to replace the nitrile rubber and cotton.
We took a great deal of measurements during this trial, and while I have not had time to fully review the data I can tell you that this blanket printed better. Better being lower dot gain at the same density levels as conventional blankets, a smoother shaped TVI curve than traditional blankets, and most importantly less density and dot gain variation in sequential pulls.
Over the coming weeks I will be including both numeric and graphical results of this test, showing how we utilized ColorMetrix to confirm the visual results with objective factual data.
So, I woke up Friday morning with a celebrated the 42nd birthday a bit too much hangover. Fortunately, I scheduled my birthday this year the day before Good Friday and we are closed on Good Friday. This left me with a day to get one of those technology projects I have rolling around in my head done.
For almost three years I have worked with Michael Woods who has tried to get me to use an RSS newsreader. On top of that Adam recently made a post about RSS over at PrintMode.net. The pressure was on, and I had decided that when I had the time I would figure this RSS stuff out.
I sent Adam an IM. He said download FeedDemon 2.0, and I did. About 40 minutes later I was reading news via RSS. So, if you are holding off because you thought it might be complicated, just do it. Now, the way I have chosen to go it will not be free, FeedDemon is only on a 30-day trial then I will have to pay a whole $29 to use it.
It will, however, save me countless hours over the course of a year checking out blogs and web-sites for updated information. The power of RSS is that the updated information comes to you, and you can read most of what you need right in the reader (on-line or off).
Tip: If you do choose FeedDemon make sure to turn OFF the synchronization feature. By turning this feature off you will not need the NewsGator web-site to be functioning in order to read news in FeedDemon. Over half my set-up time was wasted because the synchronization server was down, so I could not get feed updates.
I have been getting a good deal of pressure to post my position on GRACoL G7, and have been holding off for one very simple reason. My comments will “go against the grain” as one fellow blogger put it. As one who was not involved in the process I feel that it would be somewhat counterproductive to take such a position. Which brings me to my point, why was I not involved in the process?
As a life long (adult life) student of marketing, I am very familiar with the concept of barriers to entry, and try to set them very high for anyone who chooses to play in my game (color measurement software). I think that in the professional world where one company is trying to win and to a certain extent must do so at the expense of another barriers to entry are a great thing.
Where I feel barriers to entry have no place is in the creation of industry wide standards. Let me illustrate with two examples. ColorMetrix is a dues paying member of NEPS (excellent organization providing exceptional benefits to members). As a small company our dues are a very reasonable and affordable $295/year. Payment of these dues gets us several high quality research reports each year AND membership on any CGATS group we wish to participate in. CGATS by extension provides access to ISO. It seems to me even a start-up company can afford $295/year.
Idealliance on the other hand, appears to have a minimum annual dues cost of $2,500. For a small company like ours, folks, this is a barrier to entry. Remember, this is like admission to the club; it just gets you in the front door. You still need to pay for all your own drinks. Or in the case of GRACoL all your own travel, etc. to the pressruns and any meetings being held. It is also not a one time fee, but an annual fee. I can maintain my membership in NPES for almost 10 years for that same $2,500.
This is a bit of a rant (which I have tried not to do here), but I can’t help but wonder if this barrier to entry is intentional. If you have never commented on a JimRaffel.com post…this would be the one.
First, I will be delaying my thoughts on GRACoL 7 for a week or two so that I can address more timely topics like a wrap-up of my thoughts and observations at Print Oasis last week in Las Vegas. Let me begin by saying that the conference was very well attended; 500+ corporate print buyers, agencies, and creative people. Most of the other exhibitors were printers, web-to-print portal providers, and one other RIP manufacturer besides AbsoluteProof who shared a booth with us.
(Opening night of Print Oasis features a “hat party” in the exhibit area. Our hat theme was beer.)
By sharing a booth with AbsoluteProof, I expanded upon the insight I have been gaining about how corporate print buyers, ad agencies, and creative types view color. Trust me when I tell you that by and large they truly do work in a world of pleasing color which causes “our” side of the fence nightmares as the creative idea enters the print space. While at the show I heard the words “proof” and “color laser” in the same sentence way too many times. The gamut and color consistency of a “color laser” will cause nothing but problems for those of us who operate in the print space.
At the very least the conference organizers recognize this situation. Two of the education sessions focused specifically on Color Proofing. Rod Rogge of ColorMetrix attended these two sessions, and reported back to me that there was a high desire on the part of the session attendees to understand color managed proofing. The session leader even suggested that the very first thing all of the attendees needed to do was purchase a spectrophotometer. (note: not one instrument manufacturer attended the show, and I believe we had the only instrument on the show floor in our booth.)
I also observed a high degree of interest in the AbsoluteProof hardcopy inkjet proofing solution. I believe that the interest of the attendees focused around several key features of the AbsoluteProof solution;
- Expanded gamut with unique orange and green ink set that allows 90% of the Pantone colors to be produced within 2 Delta E. (Pleasing color or not, the attendees know what color they want)
- Ability to run on a Mac (many agencies have only Macs)
- Inexpensive remote proof option
- True dot proof or contone
AbsoluteProof USA has been bundling the ColorMetrix ProofPass.com solution with almost every RIP install for over a year. During the show they stressed the ability to do remote diagnostics of print/color related problems with the ProofPass.com solution to be invaluable.
Coming next(probably)…Jim Raffel‚Äôs thoughts on GRACoL 7
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