中文Sun Print Solutions has added Sentinel’s iPro Ink Management System to its new Komori Lithrone GL840P advance LED-UV perfecting press with coater, automating a pressroom task that previously depended on operators manually scooping and monitoring ink. The system delivers ink to the press fountains on demand, alerts operators when cartridges need changing, and uses sealed air-pressurised plunger cartridges designed to use roughly 98% of the ink in each container.
For Sun Print, which produces books, magazines, posters, direct mail and folding cartons, the move fits a broader strategy of modernising equipment and streamlining production. The iPro addresses one of the oldest, messiest manual jobs in the pressroom: keeping fountains filled and consistent. By delivering ink continuously, the system removes the surges and colour drift that came with the old manual method of topping up fountains.
“Having the ink distributed continuously is a colour-consistency feature that we really appreciate,” said Stefan McTee, chief operating officer at Sun Print Solutions. “From the first sheet to the last, we don’t experience the surges that came with the old way of putting ink into the fountains.” Sun Print reports that the combination of automated delivery, reduced operator intervention, cleaner handling and more stable colour has been convincing enough that operators are now asking for Sentinel to be added to the company’s older offset press as well.
The appeal of automated ink delivery is easy to underestimate from the spec sheet. Manual fountain filling is not just labour; it is a direct source of variability. The moment an operator tops up a fountain, ink film weight changes, and with it colour. On long runs or multiple-up jobs, that variability shows up as makeready waste and customer complaints. A continuous, metered supply flattens that curve, so the first sheet and the last sheet match — which is exactly the consistency high-volume book and carton work demands.
The 98% cartridge utilisation is the second quietly important number. Ink is expensive, and partially used cans of custom mixes are a perennial source of waste and inventory confusion. Sealed, pressurised cartridges that exhaust almost completely reduce both material waste and the environmental footprint of disposal. For a printer running multiple substrates and colour-critical jobs, those savings accumulate across every shift.
Sun Print’s decision to extend the system to an older press also signals a maturing automation market: retrofit viability matters as much as new-press integration. Pressrooms rarely replace all their equipment at once, so solutions that improve an existing machine’s consistency and ergonomics can deliver a faster return than waiting for the next capital purchase. The operator-led demand — asking for the system rather than being told to use it — is the strongest evidence that the technology earns its place on the floor.
Source: INKISH.NEWS (https://inkish.news/en/article/sun-print-automates-ink-delivery-with-sentinel-ipro).
The ergonomics benefit deserves emphasis too. Manual ink handling is messy, physically demanding and a source of workplace strain and spill risk. Automating delivery removes a repetitive lifting and scooping task, reducing exposure to ink and cleaning solvents and improving the consistency of the operator’s environment. In an industry grappling with recruitment and retention, a cleaner, safer, more automated pressroom is also a selling point for finding and keeping skilled staff. Sun Print’s experience — operators requesting the system for an older press — shows that the value is felt on the floor, not just in the finance office, which is usually the clearest signal that an automation investment has earned its place.
Looking at the wider pressroom-automation trend, ink delivery is one of several manual tasks now being engineered out of the line — alongside automated plate changing, colour measurement and wash-up. Each removal reduces variability and operator load, compounding into meaningful gains in throughput and consistency across a shift. Sun Print’s plan to extend the system to an older press shows the value case is strong enough to retrofit, not just to specify on new buys. For converters weighing where to spend automation budget, pressroom tasks that are both labour-intensive and variability-generating — like ink handling — are among the highest-return targets, paying back in waste reduction, colour stability and a better working environment at once.
For equipment vendors, Sun Print’s operator-led demand is the best possible validation: the people on the floor asked for more of it. That organic pull is rarer and more durable than a mandate from management, because it survives leadership changes and budget cycles. As pressroom automation matures, the systems that win will be those that earn that floor-level endorsement by solving a real, daily problem — variability, mess, waste — rather than those sold on a specification alone. Sentinel’s iPro appears to have cleared that bar.
As energy and labour costs keep climbing, the business case for automating the humble ink fountain only strengthens. What begins as a colour-consistency upgrade quietly becomes a labour, waste and safety upgrade as well, and that bundling of benefits is what makes pressroom automation pay for itself faster than single-purpose fixes. Sun Print’s experience is a tidy illustration of the rule: remove a manual variable, and several problems solve themselves at once.
