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General Category => CTP - CTF => Topic started by: G_Town on April 13, 2021, 12:13:30 PM

Title: Plate storage rack?
Post by: G_Town on April 13, 2021, 12:13:30 PM
What is everyone using to store their plates before going to press?

Right now we have an old metal rack and the complaint is the plates are to heavy to remove from the top shelf.
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: DigiCorn on April 13, 2021, 12:24:57 PM
When I was working, we used to fold large sheets of chipboard in half to create "folders." I have also used old plate boxes as "folders". They are usually labeled A, B, C, etc. and then on the ticket, we write which folder letter the plates are in.

We hung on to the old slip sheets and put them in between to avoid scratching.
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: David on April 13, 2021, 12:54:17 PM
Quote from: G_Town on April 13, 2021, 12:13:30 PM
What is everyone using to store their plates before going to press?

Right now we have an old metal rack and the complaint is the plates are to heavy to remove from the top shelf.

are these ready and waiting for press or are they in the plate room waiting to be exposed?

For the plate room, these were stored in their boxes on a large metal shelf (big metal bars that slide lock together system) about 10 ft tall, roughly 20 feet long, placed several feet away from the platesetter cassette so all you had to do was pull the box, turn around and load into the setter. (box of 100, weighs a ton)
Platemaker bitched about it, but it was what it was.

For the press room, we had a double wide (the width of 2 - 40 in plates side by side) cabinet, with about 20 shelves, (approx 4 in between the shelves). Plates were laid flat in the shelf, not hung on hangers.
Each job had it's own shelf (plates with slipsheets between). If it was a W&B, it had 2 shelves, one for the front, one for the back. W&T, etc had just one shelf
This cabinet was about 4 1/2 to 5 ft tall.
There were never that many plates in a single shelf that it was too heavy to get out.
That said, a stack of 12 to 14  40 inch plates can be pretty heavy... 

and cut you like a razor if you didn't watch out.


Maybe you need a shorter shelf?



:drunk3:
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: G_Town on April 13, 2021, 12:58:32 PM
Quote from: david on April 13, 2021, 12:54:17 PM
Quote from: G_Town on April 13, 2021, 12:13:30 PM
What is everyone using to store their plates before going to press?

Right now we have an old metal rack and the complaint is the plates are to heavy to remove from the top shelf.

are these ready and waiting for press or are they in the plate room waiting to be exposed?

For the plate room, these were stored in their boxes on a large metal shelf (big metal bars that slide lock together system) about 10 ft tall, roughly 20 feet long, placed several feet away from the platesetter cassette so all you had to do was pull the box, turn around and load into the setter. (box of 100, weighs a ton)
Platemaker bitched about it, but it was what it was.

For the press room, we had a double wide (the width of 2 - 40 in plates side by side) cabinet, with about 20 shelves, (approx 4 in between the shelves). Plates were laid flat in the shelf, not hung on hangers.
Each job had it's own shelf (plates with slipsheets between). If it was a W&B, it had 2 shelves, one for the front, one for the back. W&T, etc had just one shelf
This cabinet was about 4 1/2 to 5 ft tall.
There were never that many plates in a single shelf that it was too heavy to get out.
That said, a stack of 12 to 14  40 inch plates can be pretty heavy... 

and cut you like a razor if you didn't watch out.


Maybe you need a shorter shelf?



:drunk3:

Ready for press.
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: born2print on April 13, 2021, 01:00:32 PM
Quote from: DigiCorn on April 13, 2021, 12:24:57 PM
When I was working, we used to fold large sheets of chipboard in half to create "folders." I have also used old plate boxes as "folders". They are usually labeled A, B, C, etc. and then on the ticket, we write which folder letter the plates are in.

We hung on to the old slip sheets and put them in between to avoid scratching.
Same. And the key is that the cardboard is thick enough (corrugated, not chip) that the plate folders may be racked vertically.
Horizontal files of any kind are the suck. If I think back to long ago I remember thin chip files full of film filed horizontally and then I throw-up in my mouth a little.
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: Possum on April 13, 2021, 01:43:08 PM
We didn't use a lot of large plates, but we'd store the used ones on a long metal coat rack made of pipes. Put metal shower curtain clips through a punch hole in the plate and hang them.
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: Joe on April 13, 2021, 01:59:27 PM
We lean them against the wall until the pressmen come and get them.
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: born2print on April 13, 2021, 02:06:40 PM
I have heard of the hanging racks solution before.
Watch out though, if you go to processless plates, they cannot be exposed to very much light, so it worked out for us that we used jackets already.
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: Skryber on April 13, 2021, 02:42:38 PM
The ex ol man used hanging racks for plates they needed to save. He said it made for easy cataloging. Those are almost 5' plates.

We used metal rafters with wooden shelves for press ready jobs and it worked fine. Our plates were 42". I used to save the poster boards that came in the plate box and slip sheet them with those after we punched them, taped together per sig, wrote on the top back, the job number, customer, job name, sig number, plate colors, date and print method. Job bag on top, one job on a shelf and the pressman designated a shelf for the poster boards and I would reuse them. It was rare we needed to keep plates and the pressman hated gumming them so they would find some way to ef them up so they didn't have to. Ha!
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: johnny_jay on April 14, 2021, 06:21:52 AM
Do you guys bend plates in prepress or is that done in the press room?

We bend them here in prepress.

For our large format plate (46 x 75) we have a Nela plate stacker with carts that hold 32 plates.Bending is done inline as well so we never touch the plate after it is loaded into the plate setter cassette.

For out Komori 38S presses (2) we have steel carts that hold them upright in bundles of press runs. these were made by a local machine shop out of steel and then powder coated.

For our small sheet fed press the plates are never bent so they can be moved much easier, we have 2 A frame carts made out of aluminum.

John
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: Joe on April 14, 2021, 07:15:26 AM
Plates are bent at the press here. Pressmen do have the carts as johnny_jay mentioned to transport the plates to the press. Plates are placed on the carts if the pressmen have left the carts by the plate room. Otherwise as mentioned before....leaned up against a wall.
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: DCurry on April 14, 2021, 07:36:24 AM
We use one of those old graphic-arts metal cabinets with the skinny drawers - it's about belly-button high with about15 drawers in it. The drawers are numbered, and we put the number in the job jacket so the pressman knows which drawer to get the plates from. Works well to keep the light off of the plates.

Pressman bends and punches his own plates - not giving him another reason to point fingers at prepress!
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: Slappy on April 15, 2021, 11:12:13 AM
We built "Triangle" carts to move 'em around. I don't use them at the platesetter often honestly, unless it's a large book with tons of sigs. They have one at the press though & that's where they stage their jobs typically.

I don't think they contribute much to scratching either, we don't do sheets between plates here at all any more. Used to when we had a dedicated plate person, but them days are gone!
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: Slappy on April 15, 2021, 11:15:55 AM
We've talked (for a few years now) about doing wall-mounted plate hangers like the attached pic, but nobody has ever moved on it so I don't suggest it any more.

(Tracy sent me the site that sells those little hanger tabs.)
Title: Re: Plate storage rack?
Post by: Tracy on April 15, 2021, 02:22:35 PM
 :laugh:
Hi Slappy!