LQ-6C & LQ-6CH
Six Colors. Pantone Precision.

4-color printing uses four inks — cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) — mixed in varying dot patterns to simulate any color. It covers approximately 55–60% of the visible color spectrum and is sufficient for the vast majority of retail bag printing. 6-color printing adds two additional ink stations, which can carry Pantone spot colors, white ink, or extended gamut inks (such as orange and violet). The key difference is that a dedicated spot color station applies a pre-mixed ink directly — without dot-pattern simulation — producing a measurably more accurate color match for brand-specified colors. 6-color is not a universal improvement over 4-color. It is the right tool when your customers require colors that 4-color CMYK cannot accurately reproduce.

Pantone is a standardized color matching system used by brand owners to specify exact colors across different printing processes, suppliers, and countries. A Pantone color reference (for example, Pantone 485 C — a specific red) defines the exact ink formulation required to produce that color. When a brand specifies "Pantone 485 C" on their packaging artwork, they expect every converter in every country to produce the same red — not an approximation. A 4-color CMYK press cannot reliably reproduce many Pantone colors because the CMYK color gamut does not include them — the press can produce a similar color through dot-pattern mixing, but the result will not pass a spectrophotometer check against the Pantone standard. A dedicated spot color station loads the pre-mixed Pantone ink directly, bypassing the CMYK mixing process entirely and producing the exact specified color.

White base station printing uses one of the six color stations to print an opaque white ink layer before the CMYK colors. This is necessary when printing on any substrate that is not white or near-white — kraft paper, brown paper, black PE film, natural non-woven fabric, or any colored substrate. Without a white base, CMYK inks printed on a brown substrate produce muddy, dark colors — the brown of the substrate shows through every ink layer and shifts all colors toward brown. The white base layer creates a neutral white printing surface, allowing the CMYK stations to produce accurate colors regardless of the substrate color. On a 4-color machine, adding a white station means removing one of the four CMYK colors — you lose either cyan, magenta, yellow, or black from your color process. On a 6-color machine, the white station is additional, so you keep all four CMYK stations and still have one remaining station for a Pantone spot color.

A full job changeover on a 6-color machine — replacing all six plates, cleaning six ink trays and anilox rollers, loading new inks including Pantone spot colors, and re-calibrating registration across six stations — typically takes 60–120 minutes depending on operator experience and the complexity of the new design. This is approximately 30–40% longer than a comparable 4-color changeover. The practical implication: 6-color economics are most favorable on long continuous runs of the same design. If you run many different Pantone designs in short runs, the changeover time per job becomes a significant portion of your total machine time. Discuss your typical job mix — number of designs, run length per design, changeover frequency — with LayerQuestar's team when deciding between the LQ-6C and LQ-6CH.

120 m/min is the rated production speed — the speed at which the machine is designed to run continuously while maintaining six-color registration accuracy, consistent ink transfer across all stations, and complete inter-station drying. This is the figure to use for production planning and throughput calculations. 160 m/min is the mechanical maximum — the speed the drive system and frame are physically capable of reaching under ideal conditions. Running at mechanical maximum is not recommended for production use: at 160 m/min, inter-station drying time is reduced, registration tolerances are tighter, and substrate tension management becomes more demanding. For production planning purposes, use 100–120 m/min as your throughput basis for the LQ-6CH.

The LQ-6C (800mm model) has a machine footprint of 4,200 × 1,860 × 2,400mm. Allow at least 1m operator clearance on all sides plus feed and exit space for material rolls — a practical floor allocation of approximately 7m × 4m. The LQ-6CH is significantly larger at 6,800 × 2,000 × 2,900mm. Allow a minimum floor length of 9–10m and verify ceiling height — 2,900mm machine height plus service clearance requires a minimum ceiling height of approximately 3.2m. Floor load capacity must support 5,000–6,000 kg for the LQ-6CH depending on width model. If you are upgrading from a 4-color line, note that the LQ-6C and LQ-6CH are the same length as their 4-color equivalents — the primary facility change is ceiling height for the LQ-6CH and floor load capacity for both series.

This depends entirely on why you need more capacity. If your existing 4-color line is running at full capacity and you need more output of the same type of work — standard 4-color branded bags — a second 4-color machine is the more cost-effective choice. It doubles your throughput, your operators already know how to run it, and your consumable supply chain is already established. If you are losing orders because customers require Pantone spot colors, white base station printing on kraft paper, or extended color gamut that your 4-color line cannot produce — then a 6-color machine addresses a capability gap that a second 4-color machine cannot fill. The question to ask is: are you capacity-constrained or capability-constrained? If capacity, buy a second 4-color. If capability, buy a 6-color.

The optional inline laminating and die-cutting unit allows the LQ-6C and LQ-6CH to complete printing, laminating, and die-cutting in a single pass through the machine. Without this option, printed film must be rewound, moved to a separate laminating machine, then moved again to a die-cutting machine — three separate operations with three separate material handling steps. With inline finishing, one operator runs one machine and produces finished, die-cut bags directly. The throughput and labor cost advantage is significant for converters producing finished bags at volume. The option must be specified at the time of ordering — it is factory-configured and cannot be retrofitted after delivery. It is most cost-effective when your production is dominated by a consistent bag format rather than frequently changing sizes and shapes.