Adaptive color control system and method for regulating ink utilizing a gain parameter and sensitivity adapter

A method for controlling ink fed by an ink control device to a substrate in a printing press, the method comprising:

• providing a target ink color value for the ink on the substrate;
• measuring an actual ink color value of the ink on the substrate at time (t);
• calculating an ink color error at time (t) which is the difference between the target ink color value and the actual ink color value measured at time (t);
• measuring an actual ink color value of the ink on the substrate at time (t+1);
• calculating an ink color error at time (t+1) which is the difference between the target ink color value and the actual ink color value measured at time (t+1);
• determining a desired ink color correction amount;
• determining an actual ink color correction amount which is obtained by comparing the ink color error at time (t) with the ink color error at time (t+1);
• calculating a sensitivity variable at time (t+1) based upon the difference between the desired ink color correction amount and the actual ink color correction amount;
• multiplying the sensitivity variable at time (t+1) by a nominal gain parameter to calculate an effective gain parameter at time (t+1) for a controller;
• and
• using the controller to calculate a new position of the ink control device based upon the ink color error at time (t+1) and the effective gain parameter at time (t+1) such that the measured ink color value converges toward the target ink density value.