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A Spanish ink manufacturer specialising in in-house R&D has introduced the DF-M12 ink dispensing machine to address issues such as the cumbersome process of changing materials, difficulties in reproducing colour consistency, high wastage, and inconvenient formulation management when mixing small batches of ink across multiple product categories, thereby enhancing the efficiency of inkjet ink R&D, prototyping, and the delivery of custom colour pastes.
Client Profile
A Spanish-based ink brand and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the packaging printing sector with comprehensive in-house R&D and production capabilities. The company operates under its own brand and independently develops and manufactures its full range of ink and varnish products. Its product range covers four major segments: flexographic inks, gravure inks, digital inkjet inks, UV varnishes, functional clear coats, various ink additives, and custom colour pastes. Digital inkjet inks represent the client’s current core growth area; they are currently advancing dedicated R&D projects with a rapid pace of new product iteration. The inks are compatible with a wide range of substrates, including plastics, paper, non-woven fabrics, wood, textiles and various other packaging and speciality printing materials. In addition to ink products, the client provides a full suite of supporting technical services to end-users in the printing industry: colour matching and formulation development, ink recovery, ink dispensing services, and on-site printing fault diagnosis and technical support.
As the order structure has evolved, there has been a growing demand for custom colour pastes, small-batch prototyping, and new product formulation testing; the existing manual ink-mixing process has gradually become a bottleneck for the business.
Client Pain Points
Following the launch of a dedicated R&D project for inkjet inks, the client encountered multiple challenges in the small-batch ink-mixing process:
1. Cumbersome switching between ink types: With the need to develop formulations for flexography, gravure, inkjet, UV varnish and colour pastes simultaneously, manual weighing and ink mixing, coupled with time-consuming material changes and cleaning, meant R&D staff wasted significant time on repetitive tasks such as weighing, stirring and dispensing;
2. Poor formula reproducibility and high risk of colour variation: Inkjet inks demand stringent colour accuracy and formula consistency; manual operations are prone to weighing errors, and colour variations occur during repeated prototyping of the same formula, affecting new product validation and the delivery of customer samples;
3. Rising pressure from bespoke orders: An increasing number of downstream packaging customers require bespoke colour pastes, leading to a surge in demand for small-batch, high-frequency ink formulation. The manual process has limited production capacity, resulting in extended delivery lead times;
4. Difficulty in controlling ink wastage: Manual ink mixing often results in excessive material withdrawal; coupled with the lack of a standardised repackaging process for leftover ink recovery, this leads to significant raw material wastage and persistently high R&D costs;
5. Difficulty in consolidating formulation data: Manual recording of formulations makes searching, retrieval, and version management inconvenient, hindering long-term ink R&D iteration and technical accumulation.
Solution: DF-M12 ink dispensing machine
Taking into account the client’s product range, R&D scenarios, and long-term business plans, we recommended and implemented the DF-M12 ink dispensing machine. This model is specifically designed for the development of inks, varnishes and colour pastes, and is compatible with all of the client’s mainstream product lines: flexographic inks, gravure inks, digital inkjet inks, UV varnishes, functional clear coats and custom colour pastes. The DF-M12 ink dispensing machine supports digital storage and management of formulations; once an operator retrieves a formulation, the system automatically completes precise material dispensing, enabling automated batching. The equipment also supports rapid colour change and raw material drum cleaning, adapting to the client’s high-frequency formulation testing and the pace of alternating prototyping across multiple product lines. Furthermore, the DF-M12 ink dispensing machine is easy to operate and integrates seamlessly into the client’s existing workflows. It works in conjunction with the client’s colour-matching development and leftover ink recovery systems without requiring modifications to existing production lines or technical service frameworks, catering equally to both R&D laboratory prototyping and the production of small-batch custom colour paste orders.
Project Outcomes and Benefits
Following the commissioning of the DF-M12 ink dispensing machine, it swiftly resolved the client’s pain points in the colour-matching and filling process, providing significant support to their core inkjet ink R&D projects:
✅ Significantly improved formula stability: Automated weighing and dispensing reduce human error, ensuring controllable colour differences in inkjet ink and UV varnish samples; formulas can be repeatedly recalled, resulting in more stable test results for new product development;
✅ Significantly improved R&D efficiency: Automated ink formulation and filling freed up R&D staff, allowing them to shift their focus from repetitive weighing and ink mixing tasks to core R&D activities such as formulation development and print application testing, thereby accelerating the implementation of inkjet ink projects;
✅ Ability to undertake more bespoke colour paste business: The system can efficiently process multiple batches of small-volume bespoke colour paste orders, shortening sample delivery cycles and enhancing responsiveness to downstream packaging clients;
✅ Controllable ink consumption, reducing raw material costs: Precise, metered dispensing minimises waste of raw materials; when combined with the client’s leftover ink recovery process, this further optimises the management of ink raw materials;
✅ Digital formulation archiving: Formulations are centrally stored within the equipment system, with clear versioning and easy retrieval, facilitating the transfer of technical knowledge within the team and laying a data foundation for long-term product iteration;
✅ Multi-purpose machine, compatible with inks for various substrates: A single unit supports sample production for all types of inks and varnishes intended for plastics, paper, non-woven fabrics, wood and textiles, thereby reducing customers’ costs associated with purchasing multiple machines.
Summary
The DF-M12 ink dispensing machine is ideally suited to in-house ink manufacturers and varnish and colour paste manufacturers. It is particularly well-suited to the packaging printing, flexographic, gravure, digital inkjet inks and UV varnishes sector. If you are an ink manufacturer currently engaged in the R&D of inkjet inks and UV varnishes, and are facing challenges such as difficulty in colour reproduction, slow prototyping, and significant errors in manual ink mixing, the DF-M12 ink dispensing machine can help you standardise your ink mixing processes, improve R&D efficiency, and support the rapid growth of new product lines.
