How to calculate ink usage
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I have installed and designed ink color matching systems for major printing houses for many years. Although I dare not recognize experts in the field of ink color matching, I dare to admit that the ink color matching system is very expert. However, in the first nine months, when I installed and designed the ink color matching system for customers, the customer suddenly asked a question that was confusing: "How do we calculate the amount of ink to be prepared in actual production? If the amount is too much, a large amount of waste ink will be left after production, which will waste costs and increase the inventory of waste ink. If the budget is too small, the employees will have to re-form or even wait for the production, which will affect the production progress."
Listening to the problem, the author does not understand the answer. However, after many discussions and trials with customers, I found a calculation method that is still accurate, and now I discuss it with various peers.
First, we need to know what are the important factors that affect the amount of ink used. Basically, the amount of ink used is affected by several factors:
Minimum amount of ink on the press
When the ink is placed in the press, not all of it will be transferred to the paper. The ink passes through a number of different rollers, is dispersed and transferred, and is finally printed on paper. Therefore, some parts are not used for printing and are worn on the printing machine, covering the drum. In addition, the ink fountain must also reserve a certain amount of ink to stabilize the ink supply. Therefore, the ink on the drum and the ink fountain should be calculated within the usage amount. This amount can be understood as the minimum amount of ink on the press. Pay special attention to the printing of different brands and models, the minimum amount of ink will be different. Of course, the more the number of prints, the less the amount of ink on the press becomes irrelevant.
Printing area
The spot color area of a print is proportional to the amount of ink. The larger the spot color area, the more ink is used. Therefore, the spot color area of the print is used to calculate the amount of ink. If the pattern of the printed area is relatively regular, it is of course easy to calculate the area using different mathematical formulas of mathematics. Otherwise, it can be calculated by the following method:
1) First copy the pattern on the copy paper;
2) Then cut the pattern out of the copy paper;
3) Put the cut out pattern on the scale to calculate the weight;
4) Cut the blank copy paper into 10cm x 10cm squares;
5) Place a 10cm x 10cm (100cm2) square on the scale to calculate the weight;
6) The pattern area can be calculated by the following formula:
Pattern area cm2=(100x pattern weight)/square weight
Number of prints
The amount of print is most directly related to the amount of ink used. The more the number of prints, the more the ink usage will increase.
Ink loss rate
In general, the printing process, in addition to some of the ink will be lost on the drum, and some will be lost when the machine head is used for test printing. In addition, because the ink loss rate can also be used to adjust the error in calculating the amount of ink, the operator can also decide whether to evaluate this.
Printing ink thickness
The thickness of the printed spot color ink does not directly represent the printing density, so it cannot be calculated using the general densitometer Densitometer. Since the thickness of the ink is relatively thin, it can be calculated by an indirect method using an ink qualifier or an ink spreader when the density cannot be measured by a densitometer or a ruler. Using these devices to calculate the thickness of the spot color ink is very knowledgeable, and the author will discuss it with the reader in the future.
The thicker the spot color ink, the more the ink will be used. Therefore, the printing thickness of the ink should be determined before printing to calculate the amount of ink. The author also advises readers not to reduce the ink thickness in order to save ink usage, because some colors can be printed at a certain thickness, and the ink is too thick, which will cause other printing problems.
Specific gravity
The specific gravity of the ink is the weight of the ink per cubic centimeter. This parameter can also be calculated using an ink qualifier or an inflator.
Now we can start to discuss how to calculate the amount of ink. The first thing to know is the basic ink usage for each print. By using the printing area of the spot color pattern and the thickness of the ink, the ink volume of a printed matter can be known, and then the specific gravity of the ink can be used to convert the volume amount into a weight to calculate the ink amount of a printed matter. Readers can also refer to the following formula:
A print ink dosage (g) = printing area x ink thickness x ink specific gravity
After calculating the ink usage of a print, the ink usage of the entire print order can be calculated, and then the ink loss rate and the minimum ink usage of the printer can be used to calculate the ink usage during production.
Production ink consumption = one printing ink consumption x loss rate x printing quantity + minimum ink usage
Readers can use the above formula to try to calculate the amount of ink used in printing to verify whether this theory is helpful for production.