Litho Press (CONT’D FROM PAGE 16)
quite match,” Hiott recalls. “Now we can match, mix, and approve that same color in a couple of hours, if not less.” By producing every spot color in-house, Litho Press shortened turnaround times from 72 hours to just two, giv- ing customers same-day proofs and emergency job flexi- bility that few competitors can match. Their ink technician can mix small batches on demand, eliminating press de- lays and reducing waste. “The major advantage for us is we can run a lot tighter on the number of pounds that we’re making,” says Hiott. “Say we’re on the last 10,000 sheets and come up four pounds short on a job. Within 20 minutes, we can have the extra five or ten pounds made on press before produc- tion shuts down. That’s the difference between meeting a deadline and missing one.” Behind those pressroom efficiencies is Ryan Higgins, founder of Muncie, Indiana-based Vivid Innovations. A supplier who built his business around GFI systems, he runs a network of GFI dispensers across sites in Indiana and Michigan. This includes three machines at Litho Press, which process more than 1,000 pounds of ink per week. “As a small distributor, GFI technology lets me serve large, complex printers without a big production staff,” Higgins explains. “I can support accounts that run 50,000 pounds of ink annually with one person on-site, and save them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in ink costs.”
Vivid Innovations provides the base inks, customized formulations, and day-to-day technical oversight that make the system sing. Each GFI AccuBlend-HV ink dispenser at Litho Press is loaded with Higgins’ proprietary database of base ink formulas, a key resource refined through thou- sands of live production color matches. “Ryan is our go-to guy,” adds Hiott. “He’s not only our ink supplier, our chemical supplier and our coating suppli- er, he is our eyes and ears in the industry. Without the rela- tionship with Ryan, we wouldn’t be as far as we are today.” Over the years, Higgins and Litho Press’s ink techni- cians have methodically formulated, tested, and vali- Matt Sanford, Ink Technician at Vivid Innovations, left, and Justin Hiott, General Manager at Litho Press stand with one of the GFI ink dispensers.
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