Your Colour Partner

March. 2011 Patrick Cioni

Digital decoration advantages

- Allows to decorate tiles with structure.- Can be used alone, or combined with traditional aplications. - Helps to make new projects faster.- Switching of models in production is easier.- Big size design.

Economic advantages

- Increases the % of first choice.- Less personal in the glazing line. - Lower logistic costs- Reduces time in start-up and change of models.- Smaller stock due to reduced number of colours.

Colorobbia services and policy

- Minimize change in glaze compositions.- Increase the technical background of the customers.- Study of Customer's Gammut.

It is possible to work with all the digital machines?

Already homologated with:Projecta (Xaar)Tecnoferrari (Xaar)Cretaprint (Xaar)Intesa (Xaar)Kerajet (Seiko,Xaar) System-Rotodigit (Spectra Dimatix) In process of homologationDurst (Spectra Dimatix)

Which are Colorobbia colours?

Cyan Cyan Brown Pink Beige Yellow Black Green(Co-Al) (Co-Si)

Which are the advantages of Colorobbia “Cinks”?

• No toxicity • No A.D.R.

• Compatible with water

• High stabilized organic-inorganic system.

• Eqilibrated and complete colour Gamut .

• Don't etch machines, nor Rotocolor drums.• Minimal cleaning during industrial production.

Which are the best ink configurations ? Floor

Wall

Floor

Wall

Floor & Wall

Floor

Wall

Floor

Wall

Floor & Wall

4 Colours

5 Colours

6 Colours

Xaar printheads

AlternativesTypical

Seiko printheads

AlternativesTypical

Why 4 colours?

According to the colour laws, the basic colours are 3 : Blue, Magenta or Brown and Yellow .

In Four-colour process (CMYK), the Black colour helps to get darker tonalities, and to have a more efficient use of the colours.

Are 6 colours better than 4?

Yes , because :• The basic ceramic gamut is limited.• We add the Black to look for darker tonalities.• Pink expands the Gamut.• Beige widens yellow range.

Gamut traditional and digital

It is better a equlibrated colour range, or a intense one ?

An equilibrated colour range is preferable, because it avoids the predominance of colours.

The intensity is important, but always in a equilibrated system.

Not all the tonalities, but around 80% of the are in our Gamut.We can reproduce the colours that are in the customer Gamut.

We can help with the conversion of a model from Rotocolor to digital impresion.

Can we reproduce all the tonalities ?Can we reproduce all Rotocolor models?

Which hardware and software we need to start?

Hardware:

•Powerful computer.

•Spectrophotometer

Software:

•Photoshop.

•Programs for colour management.

Why the water condensation can be a problem?

The water vapour of the tiles gets in contact with the printheads plate and inks increasing its viscosity.This leads to the formation of a thin layer of ink with higer viscosity which reduces the printing quality and forces to frequent cleaning.

How we can minimize the condensation problem?

Reducing the tiles temperature down to 40 – 45 ºC before the digital printing.

How much ink we can apply on the tiles?

Machine of 4 printing bars.

Maximum. 20 gr/m2 Normal. 5-6 gr/m2

Digital machine

Production line

Printheads

1º Colour

2º Colour 4º Colour

3º Colour

What is “resolution” or “d.p.i”?

Resolution or d.p.i = DOTS PER INCH

There is a Vertical Resolution also called native and fixed by the kind of print-heads used and an horizontal resolution which

changes depending on the speed of production.

Xaar printhead

512 nozzles each row

Row 1 Row 2

360 dpiFixed

7 cm

RESOLUTION

Changes with speed

Seiko Printhead

256 nozzles each row

Row 1 Row 2180 dpiFija

7 cm

RESOLUCIÓN

Changes with the speed

RESOLUTION

180 dpiFixed

How many printheads we need?

Depends on the tile size:Each Printhead is 7 cm, so if you have tile wide 33 cm in the direccion of lhe line you will need 5 Printheads for each color

33 cm

The length of the tile is not important

How is related the speed of printing with the resolution?

Speed Resolution* 24 m/min 360 dpi

Xaar 33 m/min 270 dpi

48 m/min 180 dpi

Spectra 36 m/min up to 460dpi

Seiko GS 43m/min up to 554 dpi

Yes, we can reduce the horizontal resolution without loosing quality.Acording to our experience , we can reduce horizontal resolution until 270 dpi without visible loss of quality, increasing the production speed up tol 33m/min.

The resolution will be higher than Rotocolors

Digital printing :360x270 dpi, and Rotocolor 100x100 dpi.

Can we increase productivity without loosing print quality with Xaar Printheads?

Xaar printhead

Drop formation

Basic drop 6 pl 1º Level 2x drop 6 pl 2ºLevel 3x drop 6 pl 3ºLevel

7x drops 6 pl 7ºLevel

6pl 12pl 18pl 42pl

pl =10exp 12 litros = 0,000000000001 litros⁻

Seiko GS printhead

Drop formation

Basic drop 12 pl 1º Level 2x drop 12 pl 2ºLevel 3x drop 12 pl 3ºLevel

7x drops 12pl 7ºLevel

12pl 24pl 36pl 84pl

pl =10exp 12 litros = 0,000000000001 litros⁻

Drop Formation and problems

Main Satellite

Mist

Smaller Satellites …

Main Drop

This whole process happens in less than 80 microseconds.

3 levels 7 levels

4mm

5mm

2mm

Xaar y Seiko printheads

1 level

Drop Reliability

Binary:

Grey Scale

Grey Scale 2

Grey Scale 4

Recomended in designs with a lot of ink

Recomended in designs with medium colour and diferent mesh areas

Recomended in designs using low quantity of ink, and diferent mesh areas

Printing modes

Printing modes

Printing modes

Binary Grey ScaleXaar

Cretaprint - - - - Bin GS2 GS3 GS4 GS5 GS6 GS7

Xaar Projecta - - - - Bin GS3 GS4 GS5 GS6 GS7 GS8

Seiko GSBin 1

Bin 2 Bin 3 Bin 4 - GS3 GS4

Seiko Bin - - - - Bin - - - - - -

Ink InInk Out

Ink Flow

Xaar Printhead X1001

Nozzles

Meniscus

Ink

Meniscus defor med by the high recirculationspeed

Air

Normal recirculation speed High speed

Lines problems

Xaar Recirculation and printing problems

Air bubble

Perfect result

Nozzles

Meniscus

Ink

Due to low speed

Drop

Normal recirculation speed Slow speed

Lines problems

Recirculation and printing problems

Xaar

Perfect result

Nozzles

Inverted meniscum

Ink

Normal condition Drop problems Air problems

Good printing White lines problems

Printing problemsSeiko

Air

Air

White lines problems

How often we must stop and clean the printheads?

Cleaning frequency depends of the design produced, working conditions, inks and the kind of printheads.

Normal 4 hours

Difficult 1 hour

Kerajet Binary 0.25 hours

Cleaning time : aprox 2 minutes

Ink composition affects the working life of the printheads?

Yes, in the following order:

M2 produced >Solid concentration in ink > Chemical structure of the pigment

How long is the inks shelf life ?

Colorobbia guarantees the inks for 6 months since production date if the inks are correctly stored.

Store preferably in a fresh, dry and dust free environment.

No problem at all.CINKS are not A.D.R: they can be sent by air, with a clear

logistical advantage.

Are there any problems sending Cinks by Plane/Boat/Truck?

It is necessary special equipment to handle the inks?

Since Cinks are no Toxic, the only precaution needed is the use of the basic personal equipment protections:

• Glasses• Plastic nitrilo gloves

Do inks need special handling before charging the machine?

We do suggest to shake well the bottle, to remove possible sedimentation during the stocking time. Then wait a few minutes

before charging the machine to avoid printing problems.

There are any special products useful before /after the digital printing?

Several products are under testing , to help to :Fix the inks in the unfired tile.Reduce superficial tension.

Protect the inks from evaporation.Fast ink drying, in case of aplication of a big amount of ink

Gestion of colourAdditive colours Sustractive colours

Red + Green + Blue = White Cyan + Magenta + Yellow = Black

Monitor,Scanner,Photocamera, Projector....

Offset printing , Ink printing...

Why we need the profiles?

A profile is an identity card of the device with all the information.It describes behavior of the colours on our interface or device.

Ex: We need profiles to produce the real colour of a photograph to aMonitor.If the monitor is not profiled the result could be far from reality.

Real image

Image with a non calibrated monitor

Red color changes

Ceramic profile

Profiles

Colour space

Adobe RGB R255,G85,B29Apple RGB R255,G85,B29

The same numbers RGB gives diferent results, depending of the colour space that we use.

Input and Output Device

Input Device:The profile “translate”the Lab values to RGB values RGB 80,23,67 Lab 23,60,-31

Lab 20,37,-11 It deppends of the color space

Output Device:The profile “translate” the CMYK colour to Lab values .

Colorimetric conversion between a Input and Output device .

Input Device Output Device

L A B R G B

A1 18 11 2 43 29 31

A2 19 22 5 51 26 27

L A B R G B

C M Y K L A B

A1 63 78 68 26 15 10 2

A2 52 80 7 76 19 22 5

C M Y K L A B

Input Device Output Device

How is the ceramic Gamut?

RGB

Ceramic CBrBeK

How we represent the colours that are out of Gamut?

There are Four ways of Rendering intents:

Perceptual.Saturation.Relative Colorimetric.Absolute Colorimetric.

Perceptual

All the colour game gets compressed, not only the part that is out of the destination colour space. In this way we keep stable the relationship between colurs. It's considered the best option for photographs.

Saturation

It moves the colours until saturation, even if this affects clearly the tones and hues of the colurs.

This option is used for graphic presentations.

Relative Colorimetric

All the colours from the original space that can be reproduced in the destination space remain without modification.The others, that cannot be reproduced in the space of destination are simulated with the colour motor conversion.It is useful when we have small number of colours in the design.

Absolute Colorimetric

It doesn't compress nor expand the whole gamut. Each colour is transformed separatly: if it's inside the destination gamut, remains unchanged; if it's outside, it get replaced by the most similar one.

Original File

Rendering intentsCeramic profile C Br Be P

Which instruments we have to profile?

We must profile all the instruments used in the process of adquisition and impression of images:

Monitor Scanner

Photocamera Printer

What we need to calibrate and profile a computer monitor?

A spectophotomer and a software as Profile Maker, in order of calibrate and profile the monitor.

We suggest to calibrate the monitor every month, as from this depends the realibility of your trials.

Why and how many Profiles of Glaze do we need?

We need to do a profile of the glaze to ensure that the result that you have on your monitor is as nears as you can with the fired tile.

One profile for each glazeOne profile for each different configuration of colours

One profile for each Digital Printer

Color PortCreate linearization .tiff image

Read linearization .lin file

Create Colour Chart with linearization embedded .tiff image

Optional Cut of total amount of ink .tiff image

Read Colour Chart .txt file

How we generate a profile?

Once we have the txt file we can generate a profile with one of these programs :

Profile MakerBasICColorNeoProfiler

...

Windows: install the profile with the mouse right botton.The profile will be stored in:C:/Windows/System32/Spool/drivers/Color

Mac Computers: you must copy the profile in:Hd – Library – Colorsync - Profiles

How can we install the profile and where can we find it ?

Colour Management in Photoshop

It's important to select in “Color Settings” the choice of “Preserve Embedded Profiles” .

If the program converts to Working profile the visualization of the file will be wrong.

Select “Ask When Opening...” in the Color Management Settings.

Colour Management in Photoshop

If we select a image without profile embedded, we will see this warning:

If we select a image With a profile embedded that is not the one used at the moment in the workspace,

we will see this warning:

What is the difference between “Convert Profile” and "Assign Profile” ?

When you Assign the profile you don’t change the values of each colour, but it will change the interpretation of each one.

When you Convert the profile you will convert the colour values to the new colour space.

We suggest to convert to the profile as the last step before printing.

Proof Setup

In this way we don't change profile and we have a preview of the final result with all the rendering options. There is no loss of information.

When we want to print the file, we must convert with the same profile and rendering intent.

Profiles conversion

RGB to CMYK Ceramic

- When we convert from a colour space to another smaller, we loose information that cannot be recovered.

Graphic Management

- Use Graphic Management if the Colour Management doesn't give good results.

- With Graphic Management the possibilty of Loss of information is higher

compared with only graphic management.

- Graphic Management depends on technical capability.

Project development

- A graphic studio presents a design.

- Colour gestion.Profile generation

-Graphic gestion.Design modification.

- Production.

Your Colour Partner

Thanks