Know any good Itek 430 repair/service places in the Boston area??

[andyfest]

Agreed, burning, processing and then thermal lamination of Fuji ColorArt proofs was laborious. I think I got it down to about 35 minutes for a completed 4 col pro proof with a dieline overlay. They were usually dead-nuts accurate though.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

<------ 19 minutes.

[Ear]

<----- 18.5 minutes.  :grin: For a single.

I could do 4 at a time, one burning, one processing, one laminating, while registering another. Could complete all 4 in less than 30 minutes.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

No you couldn't. The vacuum and exposure on black alone makes that feat impossible. 19 minutes was the fastest it could be done. I did it first at my shop, then everyone else caught up after a while. It physically took the vacuum and exposure time 19 minutes for all 5 burns. You had to be waiting between burns.

[Ear]

Not at my shop. We were using 3M Matchprint. Burning with the regular 5000w Mercury Vapor plate burner. I even ran a scale on them and would adjust the burns slightly as the Merc temp changed. I actually don't know how much a single took but I do know I could do 4 in under 30 minutes.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

Not at my shop. We were using 3M Matchprint. Burning with the regular 5000w Mercury Vapor plate burner. I even ran a scale on them and would adjust the burns slightly as the Merc temp changed. I actually don't know how much a single took but I do know I could do 4 in under 30 minutes.

Yeah, I can believe that. Busting ass you could do 4-up in 30. You could probably do 8-up in 30, but you would have to almost hit registration at about 3 seconds per. Of course the tape dispenser had to be in a good and forgiving mood. :laugh:

[Ear]

No, dillhole, 4 separate matchprints in 30 minutes. And I know none of the burns were even close to 5 freakin minutes, FFS! Maybe 2 minutes, max. I had no burns longer than 2 minutes, plate or proof, I remember most were in the 60s-90s seconds. It wasn't a fliptop burner, it was the big, old vacuum frame and the light stayed on all day, would open a shutter to burn, so it had no warmup time, except for in the morning. We had a little NuArc flip-frame that would take 5 minutes per burn, if the big one went down.

edit: I notice you said 5 burns. Y+M+C+K = 4. Maybe this was your problem.  :laugh:

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

No, dillhole, 4 separate matchprints in 30 minutes. And I know none of the burns were even close to 5 freakin minutes, FFS! Maybe 2 minutes, max. I had no burns longer than 2 minutes, plate or proof, I remember most were in the 60s-90s seconds. It wasn't a fliptop burner, it was the big, old vacuum frame and the light stayed on all day, would open a shutter to burn, so it had no warmup time, except for in the morning. We had a little NuArc flip-frame that would take 5 minutes per burn, if the big one went down.

edit: I notice you said 5 burns. Y+M+C+K = 4. Maybe this was your problem.  :laugh:

Ahhh, you just fucked up. First off, The exposure time was regulated through a filter called a kokomo. Basically a UV filter. It increased normal burn times to the nth degree. The 5th burn was for the clear finish that sealed the matchprint to the backing board and THAT is where most mistakes happened. Air bubbles. You had the choice of matte and gloss finish, the customer made that decision based on the stock final print was on.

Have you actually made one? :tongue:

[Ear]

bzzzzz wrong! The Kokomo filter was used to clear Dylux (blueline), so you could take it in the sun without it turning blue.

3M Matchprint. I made thousands. Laminate yellow, peel mylar base, expose, process, repeat with registration. No 5th burn, no special filter. Each color was sealed as soon as laminated and I rarely had bubble problems, as long as it went in straight. Completely different than what you describe. Makes me wonder if you ever did one.

We had a POS called a Konsensus for a while. Sounds like what you are talking about.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

bzzzzz wrong! The Kokomo filter was used to clear Dylux (blueline), so you could take it in the sun without it turning blue.

3M Matchprint. I made thousands. Laminate yellow, peel mylar base, expose, process, repeat with registration. No 5th burn, no special filter. Each color was sealed as soon as laminated and I rarely had bubble problems, as long as it went in straight. Completely different than what you describe. Makes me wonder if you ever did one.

We had a POS called a Konsensus for a while. Sounds like what you are talking about.

Nope. All wrong. The laminate would scratch like a mutherfucker without the sealant. As a matter of fact, you removed the kokomo filter and slid in its place a clear filter for the sealant. I start to wonder about you doing them, it is fucking impossible to register to yellow on a matchprint. You would always start with magenta. You had to be in a room with yellow lights as to not expose the laminate. All this was Kodak materials, not too uncommon.

That 3M shit, we used, but it came later and it was a waterless proofing system and they looked like shit compared to the Kodak system. A lot easier to use as well. Maybe that's what you're talking about.

[DigiCorn]

I don't know what all that shit is you guys are talking about, but what I remember was after doing dylux bluelines and color keys, my hands smelled like ammonia.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

I don't know what all that shit is you guys are talking about, but what I remember was after doing dylux bluelines and color keys, my hands smelled like ammonia.

Yes, you did use the UV filter for Dylux, or Bluelines. I loved the smell of that stuff.

Color keys still give me nightmares.

[Ear]

No kokomo with the matchprint. The sealant we used was laminated after the last burn, gloss or matte.

Yellow first. They gave us a blue pen that you could hit the reg marks with to turn them green for registration but I could register mag to yelo easily without it. The old guys were the only ones that had trouble registering to yellow. Ours was 3M, not Kodak and it looked great. Semi white-light safe. You musta been on an older setup.

[DigiCorn]

I hated peeling them apart. The years were 1990-1992, but I can remember fighting with them clearly.

Back in '99-'00 we did some color keys that had an emulsion you had to wash off, but it was part of a failed experiment to run metal plates and get 4-color off a Quickmaster 2-color (in 2 passes obviously) with a common blanket.

[Ear]

Dye Sub printers were a real PITA.