AzuraTS and lights

[DCurry]

Just curious what other users of the Agfa AzuraTS (colons deliberately left out!) are doing when they open a new box of plates.

I unwrap them completely and store them in the drawer of a large flat file cabinet. I've noticed that I'm starting to see some fading on the unimaged plates. The cabinet is in a normal lighting area with a window nearby. I don't think a whole lot of light could enter the drawers, but something must be. It is especially noticeable if the top slipsheet is slightly askew -- then you can see on the plate where the slipsheet was.

I don't know if this is a problem or not at this point. I'm going to start leaving the plates in the black plastic wrapper to see if that helps.

[Farabomb]

I don't have experience with that plate but I can see the difference in the kodak sword plates after about 2 hours if left out emulsion up. I keep them wrapped and in the box that's closed if not imaging plates.

[Santa]

We do the same here, I unload them into a file drawer. 

Have had the same thing happen hundreds of times, over the last 5 years both on Azura and the TS.  Top slip sheets skews after I take a plate out, little light gets in and I see the outline of the sheet.

Never has shown up on the press sheet or the burned plate, so never really worried about it.

[beermonster]

i leave mine boxed up - no issues at all

only issue i have is the last plate in the loader - some light gets in so we leave a crap plate on the bottom and punch in the number of plates as one less than actual - so the naff one dont get exposed on the ctp by mistake

good plates these

[steveagfa]

Dan:

Azura TS is faster than our original Azura, so ambient light does have more of an impact.
Here's some recommended handling guidlines for Azura TS.

- Storage of plates before exposure in unopened packaging – 24 months (from date of manufacture).

- Before exposure, packaging opened - several weeks;
store emulsion down, keep interleaving paper between plates, keep preferably in original packaging (hand closed)

- After exposure, before cleaning - several hours (avoid high humidity and high temperature)

- After clean-out - several weeks due to the new Azura TS Gum

- For archiving after printing - re-gum with Agfa "storage" gum

- Unexposed plate sensitivity to daylight & oxygen - 8 hours;
no issue with platesetters that load face-down.

- Recommended handling – keep wrapped prior to use in manual systems,
protect top plate when using cassette loading.

Still, quite a forgiving and easy plate to work with.

Regards, Steve.

[DCurry]

Thanks for chiming in with that detailed info, Steve. I'll follow your recommendations!

So far we are quite pleased with the plate and the Avalon.