Quality Assurance
Inktech maintain a very high standard of Quality Control and appreciate the necessity for stringent testing of the complex ink formulations prior to products being authorised for release. Testing is carried out on every product against a known standard or customer supplied specification by highly motivated, experienced technicians in the on-site laboratory.
Inktech formulate liquid inks with many different raw materials to produce unique recipes that provide colour and other desirable qualities when printed on the finished package. End-use properties such as the desired colour strength, gloss, adhesion, water-resistance, grease-resistance, scuff-resistance, slip and lightfastness are a few of the ink characteristics demanded from end user packaging specifications. In addition, inks must have the right drying rate for the specific press application, appropriate colour strength and rheology for ink transfer.
Inktech have established standard test methods to meet all industry driven specifications and each ink product is tested against standard for its particular end use.
The fully equipped laboratory enables access to the required equipment to test all products in house prior to dispatch:
- X-Rite Exact Colour analysis using colour i-control
- Testometric tensile strength and friction coefficient tester
- PATRA & SATRA rub tester
- Automatic K-Proofer with varying etches for controlled application.
- Lab Silverson HSS & Lab industrial shaker.
- Lab oven and moisture analysis.
- Heat sealer with integrated pressure and temperature controls.
- Viscosity cups and novo-gloss meter
As part of our quality system batch samples and full documented records are retained which allows statistical analysis to be undertaken and Certificates of Analysis to be generated where required.