At HANS KOLB Wellpappe, the potential of digital printing was recognized early on and direct digital corrugated cardboard printing has opened up a completely new field of activity for the company.
In order to ensure efficiency and quality right from the outset, GMG was called in to help implementing a digital workflow – focusing especially on color management.
The KOLB Group was familiar with many of GMG’s solutions. GMG ColorServer and GMG ColorProof have been reliable companions for years. Nevertheless, various providers were tested for this new venture. The fact that GMG was chosen once again, was “definitely the right decision,” says Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Ruffing. “We were particularly impressed by the fully automated color space conversion. Now, we can convert spot colors more accurately to CMYK – taking into account the maximum available color space. The less attractive alternative would have been a cumbersome, manual color profile creation.”
Production Manager Sebastian Fromm sees his own expectations of print quality being exceeded – especially with print on uncoated, white and natural brown materials. The substrates are diverse in their nature, explains Sebastian Fromm. The spectrum we print on ranges from white-coated to white-uncoated and recycled outer liners. We even print directly on natural brown recycled liners. “The results are impressive,” says the production manager. “Especially with natural brown KOLB HighLiner qualities, we clearly exceed our customers’ expectations. It’s not just the outstanding quality and the precise color reproduction, the unlimited repeatability is an important aspect too.”
The color experts at GMG are also enthusiastic about the results. “Our GMG ColorServer solutions are the No.1 choice for consistent colors and predictable results – especially in digital printing,” emphasizes Jürgen Seitz, who was in charge of the project. Natural brown corrugated cardboard is a very specific challenge, admits the experienced GMG consultant and immediately makes a promise: “Whether 4c or multicolor, whether conventional or digital – with our technology we can achieve exceptional color results on practically any substrate.”
