BST, X-Rite Partner for Strategic Development

Collaboration between BST International and X-Rite is targeted to provide value-added capability beyond the current offering: both inline spectral measurement systems and stationary handhelds will deliver comparable results. This will raise the bar for color quality control and workflow simplification, as the system will provide an answer to the ever-growing need to provide both reliable in-line and off-line data on specified colors over the entire print production.

The partnership has enabled a team of engineers from both companies to solve a tough challenge—to develop a fully automated and real-time accurate spectral in-line system that can deliver the precision and exact results required in the flexo, gravure, and narrow-web market.

“Ensuring color control is the decisive key issue for the flexo, gravure, and narrow-web printing industry community,” says Percy Dengler, BST International’s Managing Director. “We at BST International are thrilled to be working with X-Rite to bring a jointly devised concept to X-Rite’s industry-leading color measurement technology.”

“Combined with our extensive experience in web quality-assuring technology this will result in a system creating a new era in press color control in this field,” states Michael Wiebe, BST’s CTO.

“We are very excited to partner with BST and through the association of our know-how, IP, and talents, to build a solution that sets new milestones in color-driven value creation in flexo and gravure workflows,” comments Dr. Francis Lamy, X-Rite’s CTO. “Through our partnership with BST International, we are expanding and leveraging our reach and leading position in inline color control technology into the flexo, gravure, and narrow-web printing market. The increasing demand in the packaging field makes it not only a very attractive large growth segment in the printing business, but it also represents a segment that values greatly accurate color; brand color reliability is an essential element of the customers’ perception that enables brand loyalty. Through these types of systems, associated to the PANTONE standards, and all the tools that X-Rite develops around the PANTONE standard to increase its relevance and ease of use in specifications and design application, we believe this will facilitate and enable value creation for brand owners and all actors in this ecosystem at large.”