Azura TS plate issues

Started by Farabomb, February 05, 2015, 01:13:48 PM

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Farabomb

So we are in the testing faze of these plates. We have the COU and they sent someone in to set up the CAT88. The guy knew little to nothing about it (surprise, it's ancient) but we seem to have the exposures right.

We have 2 issues so far. One is framing on press. The pressman operator is insisting it's on my end but since it's a write to image plate (background just washed away instead of the LH-PJ that burns out the background) it really doesn't make sense. Not saying it's impossible, just not probable.

We do have minor framing issues with the LH-PJ. The AGFA guy said to add another oz. of fountain solution. That should help things. I'm not all that familiar with pressroom chemistry but what does fountain solution do? Does it help lessen ink stick to the non-image areas?

The bigger issue has me stumped. We had a job, 4 out on a 19x25. In one place toward the gripper the dot was not there. I read it with the plate reader and there was nothing. The other placement towards the tail, the dot was there. I made another plate to see if was just a fluke and it swapped. The image toward the tail was now missing dot and the one near the gripper had dot. I checked the preview on the CAT and the dot was definitely there.

It was a 2-3% dot so my thought was the plate's resolution couldn't hold it. I tried to adjust the curve so It didn't cut any from the highlights and it got slightly better. Has anyone else had issue with light screens? I'm quite worried that if we go to these plates and it happens again that we won't catch it and the job will get rejected.

Is there anything else I should watch out for? I was assured by the salesman we would have no issues with this plate but that's not been proven to be the case.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Joe

Quote from: Farabomb on February 05, 2015, 01:13:48 PMI was assured by the salesman we would have no issues with this plate but that's not been proven to be the case.

Really? I've never had that happen before. :sarcasm:

Sounds like the same kind of issues we had with the AGFA Amigo TS plates we tried. Horrible time with them that AGFA could never fix so we went to the Fuji LH-PJ plates.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Farabomb

Well, that's not good news. I know of other places that are using the Azura TS plates without issue. I do hear from some people (mostly platesetter salesmen) that the CAT88 might not be up to the task of burning the new plates. If it was coming from someone else besides salesmen I'd be inclined to agree. I'd ask others running a CAT88 but I don't think there are any people left.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Joe

AGFA blamed our Luscher CTP's as the problem too. Anything/everything but their plate was wrong. >:(
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

DCurry

I ran that plate on an Agfa Avalon for 3 years and never, ever had any problem.
Prinect • Signa Station • XMPie

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. But set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!

Farabomb

Sounds exactly like what happened when Kodak changed their emulsion on the sword plate. It was 2 months before they admitted they changed it and we kicked them out.

I want this plate to work. There seems to be less cleaning, I don't have to buy distilled water, less chemistry to keep on hand.

In reality the LH-PJ works just fine but the overall cost is higher. We haven't had many issues with the plate. Service is great, plates come the next day and if we ever had issues they were on the phone helping that day.

AGFA, not so much.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

DigiCorn

Having used that plate for a number of years, I can assure you it's rock fucking solid. It only has a gum wash as chemistry, so it's almost processless. Short of scratching it on press, we never has a press solution that removed dot. Sounds like a platesetter issue.

What kind of imager do you have? The only Screens I am familiar with work on a drum, which can develop hot spots from time to time. You have the opposite problem. Some of the Agfa and Heidelberg imagers image flat on a platen, which means your laser/mirrors may be encased in a removable glass tube. If the tube gets dusty, the laser intensity over that area is compromised, hence no dot.

Removed the covering and clean the tube/mirrors with a proper chem wipe/optic wipe, for resolve. If you need a recommendation, I suggest these: CleanTex CT811 Optic Pad Wipes
"There's been a lot of research recently on how hard it is to dislodge an impression once it's been implanted in someone's mind. (This is why political attack ads don't have to be true to be effective. The other side can point out their inaccuracies, but the voter's mind privileges the memory of the original accusation, which was juicier than any counterargument ever could be.)"
― Johnny Carson

"Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it."
– Nikki Sixx

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
― Ernest Hemingway

Farabomb

My imager is one version up from a hammer and chisel. It has a drum that you mount the plate on pins then a optic goes across and burns the image. I haven't cleaned the optics in a while so that will be the first thing I do. It's just strange that it jumps around.

Yes, if the drum isn't kept clean there will be hotspots. It really hasn't been an issue as I keep it clean. I also won't rule out the mat just wearing from age. The mat is at least 7 years old now so it's possible the thickness varies now. Still doesn't explain how it jumps around. If it was always in the same area it would be a lot easier to nail down.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

pspdfppdfxhd

we have used these plates for over 5 years with very few issues. i mean the only issues appeared on 1 of 4 presses so i would guess that was a press or press chemistry problem.

beermonster

although its been a while i did use azura plates at my old place - no issues at all

it sounds like a laser issue dropping power to create the dot - it kinda doesnt hit optimal "window" for power, which is when the surface hardens, and therefore no dot - now this WILL move around on the plate as the lasers fluctuate in power during imaging - one time it could hit power then fade - or start slow and gain power

i'd deffo start cleaning stuff first and see the results. run a test plate of say 4 or 5 % dot all over when yer done and see how it goes
Leave me here in my - stark raving sick sad little world

beermonster

on my old screen ctp it did also have a way to check on laser status by sneakily logging in as an engineer - dunno if your system has anything that "adavnced"? you did say it was old. if cleaning works the lasers are ok. if cleaning doesnt work well maybe not so much

from my experience with these azura plates, i'd be surprised if this WAS a plate issue, but i'm seldom surprised these day!

sorry for the two posts - gotta keep my post count up or they'll chuck me out
Leave me here in my - stark raving sick sad little world

Farabomb

All good man.

I have full rights to everything on the CAT. I know more about it than 99% of techs out there. I have a decent understanding of the whole damn thing. One thing I did just notice is that since we moved it the whole damn thing rocks when you push it. That and the boss just noticed I moved it... 4 weeks ago.

Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Farabomb

I heard from a web shop that if running these plates that they have issues with metallic inks.

Has anyone running them seen any issues with metallics?
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

beermonster

from way back i remember run length went waaaay down with metallics. on something like cfbb board sometimes we got around 100k for process stuff - ended up making 2 or 3 plates for the metallics - i'd forgotten bout that
Leave me here in my - stark raving sick sad little world

DigiCorn

Never had any kind of issue with Azura TS and yes, we did run metallics on occasion. Most of our runs were < 10k but we have a few that approached 100k and except for pressman error, no issues.
"There's been a lot of research recently on how hard it is to dislodge an impression once it's been implanted in someone's mind. (This is why political attack ads don't have to be true to be effective. The other side can point out their inaccuracies, but the voter's mind privileges the memory of the original accusation, which was juicier than any counterargument ever could be.)"
― Johnny Carson

"Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it."
– Nikki Sixx

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
― Ernest Hemingway