WAN-IFRA Research and MaterialTestingCenter prepares for INCQC 2016–2018 evaluations

 The International Newspaper Color Quality Club (INCQC) is the only worldwide competition that evaluates the print quality of newspapers. The biennial competition was started in 1994 with an aim to promote one quality standard for the entire newspaper industry. ISO 12647-3, the quality standard for newspaper production, is taken as a basis for evaluation.

 For the first time, the competition is organised entirely at the WAN-IFRA Research and Material Testing Centre (RMTC) in Chennai, India. RMTC, started in 2007, offers newsprint and ink testing, training and consulting services for the newspaper industry.

 Running an international competition demands a very organised way of working and hence needs a lot of preparation. Keeping that in mind, RMTC started its preparations one year back.

 The foremost requirement for the INCQC evaluation is procuring the spectrodensitometers for evaluation. X-rite had been a long-term partner in the INCQC competition. This year too they sponsored two latest X-rite “eXact” models of their spectrodensitometers.

 Based on the past records, WAN-IFRA anticipates that about 160 newspaper titles would participate in INCQC 2016–18. Receiving copies from these many number of titles, storing them, evaluating and generating reports is not an easy task.

 First, a 5S project ("sort", "straighten", "shine", "standardise", and "sustain") was taken and the existing laboratory equipment was re-arranged to create space for storing newspaper copies from the participants of the competition. RMTC also procured custom-made black colored card board boxes to store the copies. These boxes are light proof, designed to specific sizes to fit newspaper copies of varied sizes and stored in air-conditioned laboratory.

 Each participating newspaper title is assigned a unique number and a box. When a parcel arrives, it is unpacked and the copies are stored in the respective box and later taken up for measurement and evaluation. Once measurement is done, the values are stored as a text file with a unique file name. Reports are then created with WAN-IFRA’s report generation software.

RMTC has just completed the evaluation of Pre-Check copies and successfully sent the reports to the participants who had participated in the pre-check. Pre-check is a free evaluation for those newspaper titles, which registered in the competition before 30 October. The Pre-Check is a preliminary evaluation that aims to simulate the actual competition so that the participants can get a feel of the real competition. It also gives the participants an indication of where they stand and what further preparations are needed.

 The last date for registering in the competition is 31 December 2015. The competition starts in January and ends in March 2016. Newspapers, who successfully demonstrate that they can print consistently high quality in accordance with International quality standards, will be awarded club membership for a period of two years. Results will be announced in June 2016 and the awarding ceremony will be held at World Publishing Expo in October in Vienna, Austria.