A few years ago my Boss bought a set of scales from Sericol.
Due to the type of work we print we all have found that the scales ink formula was very inaccurate. Some of the colors worked,but not all of them.
We were trained by the sales rep on how to use the scales and he said that the formula was just a guide but was very close to the PMS color and we needed to adjust the color just a fraction!!

We now have a set of scales gathering dust that no one wants to use.
The company paid good money for these scales and it does not work proficiently.

Has anyone else experienced this with their scales and do you recommend any other option?

And your company made a big mistake in spending money that way. !
Without naming any of those systems of « scales for screen printing « , I can tell you that no one of those can give you an accurate and precise estimation of the good manner to formulate and mixe ink to obtain a special wished colour…

The reason why those scales cannot work is very simple : in the factors that influence the ink deposit, then the colour hue, transparency, density, etc. you have the fabric, the thread diameter, the rheological qualities (viscosity, thyxotropy, etc.) of the ink, the speed of printing, the squeegee blade durometer and angle, the floading, the quality (absorption or non absorption) of the substrate : it is quite clear that you cannot obtain the same result on a T-shirt or on a non-coated paper or on a PET or PMMA…..

As the so classical and universally used Pantone scale, made for offset-litho, is not usable in terms of % for screen printing (because made with and for offset inks): it is only an « indication » of the colour the customer wants. If you add the fact we work in Europe and USA in two different colour spaces – European Din ISO coated v2_1 and Gracol 2006 coated 1v2 (US SWOP) – and a lot of ICC profiles, with different results on coated and non-coated papers (+ papers, textiles, a lot of different plastics, etc.)!

In my company we never used any of those scales, maybe because I was lucky enough to have several « natural born » colourists, including myself, who « felt » the manner to mix the colours to obtain exactly what the customer wants (on such a substrate, with such an ink, such a screen, such a press, etc…. Up to us to reduce the number of parameters to avoid the control of too many parameters, each of them having an influence on the printed colour and even more in halftone colour printing.

I simply said that « the customer want exactly this colour (most often a Pantone reference as it is quite universal), you have to copy it and if you are not sure of the result, CONTROLE with the spectrocolorimeter and/or the densitometer ».

The type of scales you mentioned are « roughly indicative », it gives you (and not always) a « trail »., but never a precise and definitive indication about the colours to mix to obtain the wished result according to the circumsta,nces when stencilling and printing……
So leave it under its dust coat and follow your instinct rather than those scales…. and sorry for the money spent for peanuts !

Michel Caza, April 28