la tinta! ("The ink")

Last week I wrote about challenges associated with predicting ink consumption. Therefore, I felt compelled to follow up with a significant, related factor; controlling ink properties, especially with water-based ink.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to assist a new client in Louisiana as they embarked on launching their flexo printing operation.

For years, they had been producing plain paper cups, but now, they wanted to break into the printed cup market. To do this, they had acquired a robust six-color in-line carton press.

The gentleman running the department was a capable leader with years of experience in offset printing, but flexo was a whole new ball game for him and the company. The team had been facing significant challenges, so they called me in for help.

When I arrived, the press was set up and ready to run. As soon as they started printing, it became immediately clear that their biggest issue, causing a chain reaction of problems, was poor control of their water-based ink. They didn’t have a way to measure viscosity, nor anything to adjust pH. At just 100 feet per minute, the ink was tracking through the press and making a mess.

We quickly called their ink supplier and ordered a #3 Zahn cup along with four gallons of DMEA (a pH adjuster). By the next morning, the supplies had arrived.

We mixed up fresh ink, adjusted the viscosity and pH to the recommended specs, and started the press again. This time, we ramped it up to 325 feet per minute before the operators had trouble seeing print details. At that point, we agreed the next step was to invest in a video inspection system.

Fast forward a few years, and I was called to help another client, this time in Salt Lake City, UT. They were printing on non-woven fabrics using a massive 144-inch-wide flexo press, and they, too, were running into serious trouble. With material costs between $5K and $10K per roll, the stakes were high.

The root cause? Again, it came down to poor ink control. Once we dialed in the pH and viscosity, things turned around quickly. I spent the rest of my visit walking the pressroom floor, coaching the team, taking notes, and periodically checking, “Do you have the ink under control?”

Some of the crew members only spoke Spanish, so I’d ask, “¿Tienen la tinta bajo control?” Soon, “la tinta” became the team's mantra.

A couple of weeks after I left, the general manager texted me a picture. The team had put up a picture of me near the ink prep area and started wiping ink on it with their stirring sticks whenever they made a new batch, like a form of cathartic release. It was all in good fun, but I’m sure they were a little tired of hearing me say “la tinta” by the time I left.
​
I could share countless stories like these. What these experiences have taught me is that many of us still aren't managing our ink as well as we should, and it’s costing us—through unnecessary headaches, wasted material, and lost opportunities. I can't emphasize it enough: La Tinta!

---