Sword Excel Plate has lines in non-image area that print....

[Ong@Kodak]

Hi PlumBob,

It sounds like an adjustment is needed for your CTP. Please contact the Kodak Technical Center at 1-888-996-5877. They will be able to help you out with this optimization.

Thanks, Frank

[Prepress_Parasite]

We had a similar problem and were told that the processor needed to be cleaned and refilled. This is at around half to three quarters of our usual cycle. Hope Kodak works the problem out!

[ivy]

We are facing a similar problem. we are a CTp service provider with conventional positive and negative plates. we just brought positive plates PS, but we have a processor that is for negative plates. the developer does not last more than 2 days due that the plates need immersion and the negative plates needs pressure of the rolls. however we continue working with this plate processor until we get one for positive plates, and even when the plates look completely clean, sometimes get veil once at the press but not in all. we are trying to find out why this effect occurs in some presses but not in others.
this is the question i was trying to ask if anyone knows. we believe though that it has to do with poor developing.

[NJservice]

What happens, especially with sword plates, is the ablation can build up inside the platesetter and land on the lens. The Kodak machines tend to have the huge vacuum cabinets with a filter, where the Screen machines have a smaller system, which is fine for most plates. It's especially bad with the 8600 machines, which have 64 lasers instead of 32, but have the same debris removal system as their 32 beam systems. When you open up a 64 beam machine running Sword plate, it makes me want to cry. It's such a nice stable workhorse, and now it looks like someone lit off a smoke bomb in it. Brown powder everywhere. I've seen it interfere with optical sensors and create malfunctions.
So, what happens is the ablation coats the optics and now the laser power has to increase to make up for the losses due to the dirt on the optics to end up with the same power hitting the plate. So you're running your laser system harder, for nothing. Also, the dirt doesn't just block laser light, but scatters it, and our goal is not just power, but power density to expose properly. With the dirty optics, it's more of a felt tip pen than a sharp fine pen that you're imaging the plate with. So a cleaning of the optics is like sharpening a pencil, as I tell my customers, and lines go away. There shouldn't be a need to increase power every month, as some have said. The power of the lasers is a very stable system, and the emulsions aren't changing all the time, and if they were, they might need LESS power sometimes, right? Why always up and up? So, you can guess I'm not a fan of the Sword, except for the money I make doing the service.

[Joe]

What happens, especially with sword plates, is the ablation can build up inside the platesetter and land on the lens. The Kodak machines tend to have the huge vacuum cabinets with a filter, where the Screen machines have a smaller system, which is fine for most plates. It's especially bad with the 8600 machines, which have 64 lasers instead of 32, but have the same debris removal system as their 32 beam systems. When you open up a 64 beam machine running Sword plate, it makes me want to cry. It's such a nice stable workhorse, and now it looks like someone lit off a smoke bomb in it. Brown powder everywhere. I've seen it interfere with optical sensors and create malfunctions.
So, what happens is the ablation coats the optics and now the laser power has to increase to make up for the losses due to the dirt on the optics to end up with the same power hitting the plate. So you're running your laser system harder, for nothing. Also, the dirt doesn't just block laser light, but scatters it, and our goal is not just power, but power density to expose properly. With the dirty optics, it's more of a felt tip pen than a sharp fine pen that you're imaging the plate with. So a cleaning of the optics is like sharpening a pencil, as I tell my customers, and lines go away. There shouldn't be a need to increase power every month, as some have said. The power of the lasers is a very stable system, and the emulsions aren't changing all the time, and if they were, they might need LESS power sometimes, right? Why always up and up? So, you can guess I'm not a fan of the Sword, except for the money I make doing the service.

Been down that road and we finally found the fix. Switched to Trillian plates. Never been better.