PressTek Plate Issues

[JonMartin]

Hey Guys we have been using PressTek CTP system for a while and have been struggling to get things to run well for probably the last 2 years. Recently we got a Heidelberg 5 color MO, we have been having major problems since then - we have been getting what looks like dry-up on the front edge and sides, as well as random dots on the plates that are not visible till the plates are inked up. Does anyone have any ideas that we could try? we are using Anthem Pro Plates and a Xitron Xenith Adobe based Rip. All we are getting from PressTek is a bunch of crap.

To anyone thinking of getting a pressTek System BE CAREFUL

[Lukew]

Poly or metal plates?
We had this anoying problem too the press techs blamed the CTP system and the CTP techs blamed the press.. nearly every time we stoped the press and started up again there would be little dots all over the place, requiring a new plate to be imaged...
We changed our fount and the problem went away straight away..

[JonMartin]

metal plates. We have adjusted our fountain solution and have had prisco come out as well. We are running these amounts of Etch 2451 and Alkaless 6000 both from Prisco - right now we are running 4 oz of etch and 2 oz of alkaless per gallon.

Also the spots are just on start up, when you scrub the plates with image remover, you aer able to get rid of them, but you can lose half an hour to an hour getting them all cleaned up

Any tips would be helpful - this is a 25 in press

Edited by: Jon Martin on Jul 1, 2008 7:17 AM

[Lukew]

Do the plates still spot up no matter how long they are pre damped at start up?
Normaly if you get these spots it can be a sign that the fount is too acidic, but you seem to have covered that.
As for the dry up on the lead edge and the sides, this can be due to incorrect roller settings,, but if its just on start up only and the roller settings are fine you may simply just need to have a longer pre damp before the ink forms go onto the plate.., for instane we have changed to another fount, now and this fount needs 15 sec more pre damp then our old fount, to ensure a clean start up.

[OffsetGuy@presstechnician.com]

Why not call the burning bush at Ptek?

[JonMartin]

The spot issue we got fixed - thanks everyone for your help - just another bad batch of plates from PressTek, as for the dry-up on lead edge and sides, we are trying all types of different settings, it just seems like the plates won't keep enough water on them.

And who do you mean by the burning bush.

the ppl at PressTek have not been very helpful at all.

Edited by: Jon Martin on Jul 7, 2008 1:17 PM

[chegwidden@aol.com]

Does the MO use an integrated dampening system, we had similar problems with our Akiyama. We wet the lead edge of the plate on startup, took a minute but worked. I have now switched to the Aurora Pro plate starts much better. They all run very clean after startup. Sorry you have had so many problems.
Bill Chegwidden