In 2018, within the Poplast Group, the in-house Pre-Press Department was created in order to develop a much-discussed, much-tried and most of the time shelved technology due to the impossibility of replicating it except in Exhibitions, Showrooms and Demo-Centers: heptachrome printing.
The Group is the Project’s Sole Partner for the entire ESKO dedicated software part.
After the first year dedicated to the complex configuration of the hardware and software infrastructure and to the start-up of the Department, in 2019 Poplast Group starts the ambitious Project “Pop7 Colour Strategy”: a fully fully autonomously developed 7-color printing technology achievable in both flexographic and gravure printing for better quality, shorter makeready times and drastic reduction of ink waste.
The process allows companies a gradual three-step conversion from the traditional up to 10-color method to heptachrome:
First phase: optimization of the traditional printing process (four-color)
Second phase: introduction of 3 spot colors with a substantial reduction in ink waste
Third phase: automatic printing with complete elimination of ink waste
Setting of the 4 CMYK colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) for maximum colorimetric performance resulting in reproduction of over 67% of the Pantone library. Maximum limit of 2 SPOT colors dictated by Brands and technical criticalities.
The goal of the phase was to limit the maximum number of colors to 7 (including any white on transparent).
In 2021, we registered the trademark “POP7 Color Stategy” and introduced ECG (Extended color gamut) with RGB of our own formulation.
Unlike other commonly known (though often unused) methods, in our Pop7 method the three additional colors are composed in part of returns, this greatly improves the sustainability of the formula, limiting the formulation of dedicated SPOT tines and subsequent management to a peremptory minimum.
Through the previous steps of converting our 10-color flexo to heptachrome fixed printing and adopting the same strategy on our 10-color gravure, we meet the specific needs of both markets.
EFFICIENCY:
– drastic reduction in printing plant costs
– reduction in job changeover and press setup times
– reduction in customer turnaround time
– off-line preparation
– increased flexibility on short-run jobs
– cost reduction
– 20% reduction in inventory and color order times
– increase in linework from 40 l/cm2 to 55 l/cm2
– all colors are always on the machine
– less drying capacity required
– reduction of parts to be cleaned at each job change
QUALITY
– consistency in the result
– reliability of color
– perfect adherence to brand identity
SUSTAINABILITY
– energy savings by reducing working time
– reduction of color waste
– lower energy consumption of dryers