Calumet Carton Sees Makeready Reductions with Rutherford & X-Rite

Calumet Carton Company, based in South Holland, IL, recently installed the Rutherford Graphic Products (Booth 134) IntelliSet and IntelliLoop systems—which works with the X-Rite (Booth 638) IntelliTrax2 Automated Color Management Solution—on its KBA (Booth 213) 142 and KBA 105 offset presses. In the first six months of use, the company saw an average decrease of about 40% in their makeready times, and more consistent color throughout all of their jobs.

The systems are designed to bring color automation to presses that don’t come equipped with the capability, or on older presses that still have useful life left, but need a modern update. IntelliSet is the first part of the puzzle—with it, shops take coverage data derived from the imposed file and run it through the software, which then pre-sets the ink keys, getting the press about 80% of the way to color targets before a single sheet has been run. IntelliLoop works with IntelliTrax2 to measure the color bars on sheets as they come off the press, automatically making the final adjustments to ensure perfect color in a closed-loop process. In addition, IntelliLoop can be used throughout the press run, to ensure color remains on target from the first sheet to the last.

Having confidence in their color consistency, and being able to do shorter runs more profitably because of the reduced makeready times has allowed Calumet Carton Company to streamline their workflow and take on work that, before, would have been a stretch. “We can take on new business we never would have considered before,” says Bob Byrne, Plant Manager, Calumet Carton Company. “It would have caused a lot of stress and anxiety, not knowing if we could hit the targets. With Rutherford and X-Rite, we now have the right tools in place to help us do that.”

Roughly 60% to 70% of Calumet Carton Company’s work is repeat jobs, which makes it even more critical that they are able to quickly match colors and bring the press back into alignment. “Before, we would save a job’s data, and then pull it back up, but the adjustments would run us around, going too far each way as we adjusted for things like the weather, heat, etc. on any given day. Now, with Rutherford Graphic Products’ systems, it does all those adjustments automatically. The system is better calibrated to the ink keys, and it makes all the right moves, in the right increments, to pull the color in faster,” says Byrne.