Dario Martinelli (left), owner and managing director of Printer Trento, and fellow managing director and co-founder Gianni Girardi regularly invest in innovative technologies and have grown their company into one of the largest book printers in Europe.
Large format Rapidas with new color control cockpits
- Producing books for famous publishers
- The latest generation Rapida 164 in daily use
- Remarkably more detailed color information at a glance
- Traffic light function for instant overview
For decades now, Printer Trento in the northern Italian city of the same name has been one of the largest and most sophisticated book producers in Central Europe. Its five large-format Rapida presses from Koenig & Bauer produce 15 million books annually. More than 150 employees handle the business of famous publishers from home and abroad in the company’s two printing centers, bookbinding shop and logistics center.
Owner Dario Martinelli and his team regularly invest in new printing technologies as a foundation for excellent performance and the fastest possible production times. The latest version of the Rapida 164 went into operation at the end of 2020. To ensure consistently high print quality, all presses are equipped with dynamic measurement and control systems from Koenig & Bauer. The goal is to reduce substrate waste and dramatically shorten standby times between individual jobs.
Expert screen for additional color control tasks
To keep up with the increasing quality demands demanded by both publishing houses and consumers, Printer Trento is very active when it comes to testing and installing innovative technologies – the latest being new color control facilities. In spring 2022, Printer Trento began testing with Koenig & Bauer’s new expert projector, which adds a separate display — in this case on a color-checking desk next to the Rapida 164 control unit — to present color values measured by the line’s embedded QualiTronic process at a glance. one. The following information is provided:
- Visual delta-E, with instant indication of the difference between one printed sheet and another, as determined by the built-in measuring system
- Gain points for 40 and 80 percent semitones at different sampling points
- Traffic lights for an immediate overview of whether the exact color values are being reproduced
- Basic settings for intensity measurements, along with the corresponding minimum and maximum intensity
- Diagram showing the color profile of the last printed sheet, to enable evaluation of dynamic response to color corrections
The Expert Display also allows for greater flexibility in terms of the console wall display. All three display areas can now be used for camera images (eg QualiTronic ColorControl, paper movement control) or other preferred functions.
Cockpit quality color as an option
At Printer Trento, color settings in printers are evaluated alongside in-house experts, and in many cases also with individual customers. To accommodate this a separate color checking desk was installed alongside the console and set up as a complex color quality cockpit with expert display. A workaround already used in a number of cases is to add an additional screen to the Rapida console itself. Regardless of the configuration chosen, the expert screen offers the following advantages:
- Remarkably improved color information at a glance, without additional mouse clicks
- Traffic lights for a clear comprehensive assessment
- Color quality can also be discussed in a larger group without blocking console access
The expert projector is designed, above all, for those printers who must work to high quality standards, for example in the production of picture books for clients in art and architecture. It is the perfect choice as detailed information about color and color quality must be scanned and evaluated at a glance.
Available for Rapida printers manufactured in 2018 or later
After successful completion of industry trials, including testing at Printer Trento, the expert projector goes on sale for the general public in fall 2022. It can be retrofitted to all Rapida presses manufactured in 2018 or later. The only prerequisite is an existing metering and control system such as QualiTronic ColorControl or ErgoTronic ColorControl.
For the future, there are already plans to incorporate additional interesting and useful quality features particularly for quality management in print production.