Worldwide Printing Solutions has achieved the latest ISO colour standard, ISO 12647-2:2013.
It has been completed alongside the Mellow Colour ISO 12647-2 Proficient Printer on the company’s Heidelberg Speedmaster XL75, a five-colour press plus coater, as part of its offset workflow in its Cannington, Perth hub.
The hub covers 4,000 square metres and is one of the largest printing facilities in Western Australia. It is also one of the most energy-efficient and carbon-neutral print sites, featuring rooftop and ground based solar panels. Together, Worldwide says it generates over 2.4 gigawatts of clean energy each day, accounting for a quarter of its energy needs at the facility.
The site has come a long way since its inception as a ‘hub and spoke’ printing franchise in 1994. In July 2010, the Worldwide name and franchise was acquired by long-established Perth Printer Crystal Print, which now trades under the Worldwide name and services a national network of over forty Worldwide-branded franchisees.
Arnold Whiteside led Crystal Print and is now the managing director at the Cannington hub. Whiteside says being carbon-neutral is also important at Worldwide, and that while the ultimate aim is to capture 100 per cent of all fugitive emissions, the inevitable small amount of CO2 that does escape is offset by the purchase of carbon credits in line with the Carbon Reduction Institute’s criteria.
“Being Green and socially responsible is in our culture. If we are to maintain our leading position as a trusted print service provider to our 35,000 customers, we had little choice but to upgrade to the latest ISO colour standard. It has proven very satisfying, hitting the right colour every time and with very little waste along the way,” says Whiteside.
Jeremy LLoyd, operations manager, Worldwide, says, “In terms of keeping colour consistent in our network, franchise groups have been hard taskmasters for colour repeatability over the years.
“We have our own auditing and implementation of colour control, but we felt that going forward, we needed to be at a standard like ISO for us to continue on without relying on internal staff managing it all.
“We have stringent procedures in place for colour. We do not have issues for colour, but putting this in to place gave us structure, and another layer, with someone outside of the business auditing it. They will come every six months, and will be here in April, in between we do print tests and record keeping to show them we are keeping up to scratch.
“I think it will assist with tenders and government stuff. We only got the certification just before Christmas. Our second audit is in the end of April. Once we are confident, we can go into a tender with it and definitely get more work. It seems the tenders stipulate ISO standards more and more these days.
“We bought out a company called Abbott printing mid-last year. Traditionally we never got into the tender game. Abbott were, and they have a few tenders on the back of accreditation, a big reason why we went down this path.
“When the tenders come up for renewal, we want to position ourselves with that extra string in the bow.”
David Crowther, owner, Colour Graphic Services conducted the training and auditing and supplied a new M1-compliant Techkon SpectroDens instrument for measurement.
Crowther says, “As with previous versions, ISO 12647-2:2013 enables us to calibrate an offset press to print within the tolerances of the target values for colour (primaries, CMYK and overprints RGB and 3 colour) and TVI (tone value increase, or dot gain). Worldwide Cannington has achieved excellent results and consistency and, in turn, these benefits are passed on to the many Worldwide franchise outlets across the country who use them as their offset hub.
“Although announced in 2013, the new standard has taken a while to become implemented effectively as uptake of the M1-mode spectrophotometers, new ICC profiles and characterization data sets have taken a while to filter down to real-world production. The increased use of optical brighteners by paper manufacturers is, however, making adoption of the 2013 standard more necessary for larger print groups who service leading brand customers and used ‘ganged-up’ printing, such as Worldwide.”
“I would like to congratulate Arnold and his team at Worldwide for their diligence and attention to detail. Once established, maintaining high colour standards is not always easy but in achieving ISO 12647-2:2013, Worldwide is leading the way.”
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