DIGITAL DÉCOR PRODUCTION HITS TOP SPEED WITH HELP FROM ‘GAMECHANGING’ AVA TECHNOLOGY

For more than 25 years, AVA CAD/CAM has been helping décor and textile companies print more efficiently, work smarter and significantly reduce waste. One of the latest companies to embrace AVA technology and boost production performance is German flooring profile manufacturer Heberndorfer Leistenfabrik (HLF).

Based in Wurzbach, Germany, HLF is a specialist producer of flooring profiles, high-quality skirting systems and decorative finishing components supplied to leading manufacturers worldwide. The company’s core strength lies in achieving perfect décor-match harmony between profiles, flooring and furniture surfaces. HLF co-ordinates with laminate or luxury vinyl tile (LVT) flooring planks, precise colour matching, accurate repeatability and reliable service. These are fundamental values for which the company has built its reputation.

“AVA is the heart of HLF’s prepress department”

Founded in 1991, HLF operates a fully integrated manufacturing process, producing decorative mouldings from raw material through to finished surface. At the heart of this capability is the company’s digital décor-printing department, where high-resolution scans and customer designs are transformed into production-ready decorative surfaces. 

HLF has been a pioneer in industrial digital décor printing since 2011 and now manages an extensive library of approximately 5,000 digital décor designs. As a result, customers are able to select existing surfaces or develop bespoke solutions. Managing such a diverse décor portfolio presents significant technical challenges, particularly when absolute colour accuracy is required.

“HLF’s core strength lies in achieving perfect décor-match harmony”

Before implementing AVA into its workflow, HLF faced growing complexity in managing its rapidly expanding décor portfolio. One of the primary challenges was colour precision – getting the exact reproduction of master samples (for example, natural wood or customer scans) to ensure a 100% match between the flooring and the profile. At the same time, the technical demands of décor printing meant that extremely large image files needed to be processed, repeated and colour separated for industrial printing systems. Handling these files using standard graphics software often created workflow bottlenecks. This increased the time required to prepare files and raised the risk of errors during colour preparation.

These inefficiencies also affected time-to-market. Long iteration cycles for colour adjustments often delayed production starts. HLF needed a way to significantly shorten the span from initial scan to final print approval. The company needed a solution that would allow its team to maintain the highest standards of colour accuracy while dramatically improving efficiency within the prepress workflow.

HLF first encountered AVA at the BAU Munich Messe in January 2025. AVA’s story and case studies of increased digital productivity were attention grabbing and very interesting to the business. HLF was already operating a highly advanced digital-printing environment. The company had invested heavily in leading technologies, including Hymmen single-pass printers, a Cruse scanner, ColorGATE RIP and colour-management software, as well as Barbieri and X-Rite calibration systems. While the production infrastructure was impressive, AVA suggested that the key opportunity for improvement might lie within the prepress stage.

Curious to explore the potential benefits, HLF agreed to run a pilot project. During the on-site evaluation, the AVA team reviewed the existing workflow, analysed print standards and assessed the requirements of HLF’s customers. 

The key features of the AVA system were implemented – real-time repeating and rescaling of the scan data, colour separation ready for digital print and spot colour recolouring of the scan were applied. The colour-management data was set to accurately match the target sample. 

AVA’s powerful soft-proofing and gamut-mapping capabilities were activated and the expected output prediction set. The file was then sent to ColorGATE for ripping and colour management. The Hymmen jumped into action less than 50 metres away. The sample was then brought back to the team and carefully placed in a light-viewing booth and analysed under daylight viewing conditions – it matched!

A member of the HLF team commented, “AVA is the heart of our prepress department.” Within this workflow, AVA now plays a central role in HLF’s décor preparation process.

High-resolution scans of wood or stone surfaces are processed within AVA to create seamless repeats and optimised colour separations for digital printing. The software enables precise retouching, scaling adjustments and careful recolouring of designs, so that digital files match the original sample as closely as possible.

Using AVA’s advanced colour-management and soft-proofing tools, the team can accurately predict how a design will print before sending the file to production. A spokesperson from AVA said, “The ability to adjust colours directly within the software for our specific substrates is a game changer.” 

Once the design is approved on screen, the file is passed to the ColorGATE RIP and prepared for printing on the Hymmen systems. This level of colour prediction helps eliminate one of the most common inefficiencies in digital décor printing. This is the endless cycle of ‘print, tweak, print, tweak’ adjustments that can waste time, materials and energy.

Since implementing AVA software, HLF has significantly improved the efficiency of its décor-development workflow. An HLF employee commented, “Compared to standard solutions, AVA offers specialised tools for the decorative-surfaces industry.” They went on to say, “The depth of colour control and the performance when handling massive data files – typical for décor printing – were the deciding factors.”

The time required to create colour ways and pattern variations has been significantly reduced, while the colour consistency and alignment between digital designs and printed output has improved dramatically. 

This increased accuracy, reduces the need for repeated physical strike-offs, saving both resources and production time. For a company managing a décor library of more than 5,000 designs, these efficiency gains are particularly valuable. AVA enables the team to modify existing designs quickly to meet new customer requirements, allowing HLF to respond faster to market demands. Improved soft-proof accuracy has also shortened approval cycles with customers, helping the company move more quickly from design development to full-scale production.

“HLF has been a pioneer in industrial digital-décor printing since 2011”

Reflecting on the impact of the technology, the benefits are clear. A representative from HLF said, “Since implementing AVA, our décor-development workflow has accelerated significantly.” They continued, “The software bridges the gap between complex scans and the industrial precision customers expect from Heberndorfer Leistenfabrik.” 

For a modern digital-printing operation in the surfaces industry, AVA offers a decisive competitive advantage in terms of colour accuracy and time-to-market.