There’s an issue that plagues many a textile screen printing shop—a build-up of partial ink containers of colours not likely to be used too frequently, if ever again. And of course there is always a very good intention of searching the redundant ink shelves before ordering colours but, as we all know, in practice that seldom happens. It’s much easier to pick up the phone than search through a collection of messy, partially-full ink buckets.
The best solution is an in-house mixing system, however, some printers argue that they don’t have the staff or time to mix ink in-house except on a few special occasions when it is really, really necessary. But, that doesn’t mean that they’re not concerned about the inevitable build-up of partial containers and the unemployed money it represents. So, is there another solution, perhaps a compromise between mixing in-house and a redundant ink inventory? Yes, there is.
Here’s how I’ve seen some printers deal with this. . . , They have a limited palette of colours that they offer customers (rather than say, a huge selection such as the PANTONE chart), and therefore limit their inventory of ink colours to those colours. Printers who use this strategy have told me that they find that most customers are flexible enough in their colour choices for this to work very well. They find that if they offer three reds, most customers will pick one and be happy about it, but if they offer twelve reds it doesn’t make them any happier, it just takes longer to do so.
The one exception is that corporate client who has very specific colour specifications. But, if the order is large and profitable enough to warrant it, you can make an exception.
So, here’s the compromise . . . Why not adopt one of Wilflex’s printable ink mixing systems and offer those colours as your house colours? If you consider that a bit limited, you have the ability to add colours by mixing the printable colours to create the additional colours for your standard palette. And then, if you want to accommodate the occasional custom colour (such as for a fussy corporate customer) you can mix it in the exact quantity.
The benefits are convenience, standardization, and no build up of redundant ink inventory. It will save you time and money!