A customer sends you their logo and says:
"We need the blue to match our Pantone color."
For an experienced color matcher, that's just another day in the ink room.
For a startup or growing screen printing shop, it can sound a little more intimidating.
Do you need pigment concentrates?
Do you need special mixing bases?
Do you need hundreds of different ink colors sitting on the shelf?
Do you have to become an expert at visually adjusting colors?
Not necessarily.
The International Coatings UltraMix 7500 RFU Pantone Color System offers a different approach that's especially attractive for shops that want professional color-matching capabilities without giving up the usefulness of ordinary ready-to-print plastisol inks.
The key is right in the name:
RFU — Ready For Use.
Shop the UltraMix 7500 RFU Pantone Color System
They're Ready-to-Print Plastisol Inks First
This is one of the biggest differences between the UltraMix 7500 RFU system and a traditional pigment-concentrate mixing system.
The 7500 RFU system consists of 19 high-performance ready-for-use colors. They're finished plastisol inks—not pigment concentrates that must first be combined with another base before they can be printed.
That means if you need one of the colors straight from the container, you can use it as production ink.
Need Yellow?
Print Yellow.
Need Red?
Print Red.
Need Marine Blue?
Print Marine Blue.
Need Green?
Print Green.
The system includes standard mixing colors, black, mixing white and a range of fluorescent colors.
That's valuable because the inventory sitting in your ink room isn't useful only when you're mixing Pantone colors.
It's also usable ink.
Then Those Same Inks Become a Color-Matching System
This is where things get interesting.
Let's say your customer doesn't want your standard blue.
They've specified a particular Pantone color for their company logo.
Instead of trying to eyeball the color, International Coatings provides its UltraMix Pantone color-matching software. You select the appropriate 7500 RFU formula and the software provides the amounts of the system colors required to create that color.
Your workflow becomes:
SELECT THE COLOR
↓
FIND THE ULTRAMIX 7500 RFU FORMULA
↓
WEIGH THE REQUIRED INKS
↓
MIX THOROUGHLY
↓
TEST
↓
That's considerably different from standing in front of an ink bucket adding a little blue, then a little white, then some red, hoping eventually your eyes tell you you've arrived at the right color.
Print Them. Mix Them. Get More From Your Ink Inventory.
That's the part of this system we think makes so much sense for startup and growing screen printing shops.
Imagine having a shelf full of colors that serve two purposes:
Ready-to-Print Production Colors
Use individual UltraMix 7500 RFU colors directly when they're appropriate for the job.
Pantone Color-Matching Components
When a customer specifies a different color, use those same inks with an UltraMix formula to create it.
You aren't choosing between a production ink system and a color-matching system.
The same family of inks can do both.
Why This Makes Sense for Smaller Print Shops
Large production facilities may have enormous ink rooms containing hundreds of premixed colors.
A smaller shop doesn't necessarily need—or want—that.
Every bucket sitting on a shelf represents money tied up in inventory.
And inevitably, some of those colors may sit there for years.
A mixing system changes the equation.
Instead of trying to anticipate every color a future customer might request, you maintain a core group of mixing colors and produce additional colors as jobs require them.
That can mean:
Less unnecessary inventory
You don't need to stock every possible finished spot color.
More color flexibility
One system gives you access to a much broader range of color possibilities.
Better repeatability
Record the formula and weight so you have a starting point when the customer returns.
Mix what you need
A small job doesn't necessarily require purchasing a full container of a specialty color.
Your base colors remain useful
Because the RFU inks are ready to print, they're not sitting around waiting exclusively for color-matching jobs.
RFU and Color Concentrates Are NOT the Same Thing
This distinction is important.
International Coatings also offers an UltraMix 7500 Color Concentrate (CC) system.
Those products are different.
The CC products are semi-curable pigment concentrates designed to be mixed into appropriate bases or other inks. International Coatings specifically states that the concentrates are not standalone inks and should not be printed by themselves.
The UltraMix RFU 7500 Series we're discussing here is the Ready-For-Use system.
That's why we think RFU is particularly easy for many startup and growing shops to understand:
Open it. Print it. Or use it as part of a formula.
It's Not Just for Manual Printing
Don't mistake "easy to use" for entry-level performance.
International Coatings designed the UltraMix RFU 7500 system for production printing, including high-speed wet-on-wet automatic applications. It's also suited to fine-detail and halftone work using finer mesh counts.
Recommended screen mesh extends from 110 through 305 threads per inch, depending on the application.
So this isn't a color-matching system that a shop necessarily outgrows when production increases.
It's designed for professional production.
FlexCure Adds Even More Production Flexibility
UltraMix RFU 7500 is also part of International Coatings' FlexCure product line.
The current manufacturer bulletin specifies a cure range from approximately 275°F to 325°F through the entire ink film.
That gives printers more flexibility than an ink requiring only a traditional higher cure temperature.
As always, don't rely solely on the dryer's temperature display. International Coatings recommends testing dryer temperatures and wash-testing printed products before and during production.
Color Matching Still Requires Good Printing Practices
A formula gives you a controlled starting point.
It doesn't eliminate the fundamentals of screen printing.
The final appearance of a printed color can still be influenced by:
- Garment color
- Underbase
- Mesh count
- Ink deposit
- Squeegee
- Print technique
- Cure
- Lighting conditions
International Coatings notes that UltraMix colors reproduce best on white or light-colored fabrics. An underbase should be used when printing the system on dark fabrics.
There's another phenomenon professional color matchers understand:
Metamerism.
Two colors can appear to match under one light source and look noticeably different under another. International Coatings specifically cautions that colors produced with the system may appear metameric under different lighting conditions.
That's why we recommend treating a formula as the beginning of a professional color-matching process—not an excuse to skip testing.
Mix. Test. Evaluate. Adjust if necessary. Then produce.
A Digital Scale Becomes One of the Most Important Tools in Your Ink Room
If you're going to mix colors professionally, don't mix by eye.
Mix by weight.
A good digital scale allows you to follow formulas accurately and gives you something extremely valuable:
repeatability.
If you mix a color successfully for Customer A today, you want to be able to reproduce that same color when they reorder six months from now.
Keep records of:
- Pantone reference
- UltraMix formula
- Actual weights used
- Any final adjustments
- Garment/substrate
- Underbase
- Mesh
- Print sequence
That's how a mixing system becomes a production system rather than simply an assortment of ink.
Think About the Business Opportunity
Color matching isn't only a technical skill.
It's a service you can sell.
Consider the customers who care about color consistency:
- Corporate clients
- Schools
- Universities
- Sports organizations
- Restaurants
- Franchises
- Churches
- Nonprofits
- Apparel brands
- Local businesses
If their logo uses a specific brand color, "close enough" may not be good enough.
Being able to tell a customer:
"Yes, we can mix your specified Pantone color."
changes the conversation.
You're no longer competing solely on who can print the cheapest shirt.
You're offering a professional production capability.
You Don't Need Hundreds of Ink Colors to Offer More Colors
That's really the point.
The UltraMix 7500 RFU system starts with 19 ready-for-use colors. Those colors can be printed individually or combined according to UltraMix formulas to produce a much broader range of special and standard colors.
For a growing screen printing business, that's an efficient way to think about an ink room:
Fewer containers. More possibilities.
And because the inks are ready for use, the system doesn't force you to maintain separate inventories of basic production colors and unusable standalone pigment concentrates.
That's what makes UltraMix 7500 RFU different.
Ready to Make Color Matching Easier?
Whether you're building your first professional ink room or adding color-matching capabilities to an established shop, the UltraMix 7500 RFU system gives you a practical way to print standard colors and create custom colors from the same ink family.
Start With the Complete System
The Kolormatrix UltraMix 7500 RFU kit includes the system colors needed to get your mixing setup started.
Shop the UltraMix 7500 RFU Pantone Color System Kit
Need Individual UltraMix Colors?
Replace colors as you use them or purchase individual RFU colors for production.
Shop Individual UltraMix 7500 RFU Colors
Print the Color You Have. Mix the Color You Need.
Professional color matching doesn't have to mean an enormous ink inventory or a complicated pigment system.
With UltraMix 7500 RFU, your mixing colors are also real, ready-to-print plastisol inks.
Use them individually.
Combine them when the job requires something different.
Record your formulas.
Build your color library.
And the next time a customer asks:
"Can you match our Pantone color?"
you'll be much better prepared to say:
Absolutely.