Suprasetter 105 "new user" questions

[rpl1991]

Hi all
Our company recently bought the suprasetter 105, it supposed to be installed at the
end of Feb. 2010. I am quite new to this technology, at the moment I am using a ultre 5800 imagesetter and our quality is not where it should be. I frequently check and calibrate if necessary the film that is being used and sometimes I have changed films over the years for better exposure etc.. I have spoken with the technician from our heidelberg agent and I mentioned a densitometer to measure plates, I was told that I dont need any, that he alone calibrates the machine and will check on the calibration every 6 months, is this the right method or does the user supposed to be trained by the technician to manage the calibartion. What if we decide to use a plate other than the Saphira plates which are recommended by Heidelbergh, does the tech from heidelbergh have to recalibarte the CTP for that particular plate? I have had some issues with the tech guy in recent years where he has shown no interest in servicing our imagesetter, always claiming that the machine is outdated and so on. I hope he does not say that to us in a couple years when we need service for this new CTP.

Can any one share their training experience before using this machine.

Sorry for the long post

Jaime

[printerpete]

not sure whether heidelberg would be happy about this or not but whenever we have changed plates the plate supplier has sent in thei techs to recalibrate.

[Mike Herndon]

Originally Posted by rpl1991

Hi all
Our company recently bought the suprasetter 105, it supposed to be installed at the
end of Feb. 2010. I am quite new to this technology, at the moment I am using a ultre 5800 imagesetter and our quality is not where it should be. I frequently check and calibrate if necessary the film that is being used and sometimes I have changed films over the years for better exposure etc.. I have spoken with the technician from our heidelberg agent and I mentioned a densitometer to measure plates, I was told that I dont need any, that he alone calibrates the machine and will check on the calibration every 6 months, is this the right method or does the user supposed to be trained by the technician to manage the calibartion. What if we decide to use a plate other than the Saphira plates which are recommended by Heidelbergh, does the tech from heidelbergh have to recalibarte the CTP for that particular plate? I have had some issues with the tech guy in recent years where he has shown no interest in servicing our imagesetter, always claiming that the machine is outdated and so on. I hope he does not say that to us in a couple years when we need service for this new CTP.

Can any one share their training experience before using this machine.

Sorry for the long post

Jaime

You will not have any problems regarding the plate calibration; that will easily be handled by the Heidelberg technician. Even if your are not running the plate Heidelberg offers they will still calibrate and set up the machine properly. Same thing if you change plates later, Heidelberg will come in and recalibrate your machine properly. If they are not available for whatever reason phone support will help you recalibrate if needed. We've been running our suprasetter 105 for almost two years at 100 - 120 plates per day on average and we have not needed to recalibrate. We had a few issues at first but they were resolved quickly and looking back some of those issues were operator related. The only thing I can say is make sure you follow the humidity requirements for the suprasetter- 50-55%. Once we get below 20% humidity we have problems with slip sheet removal causing jams. This went away when we upgraded our humidity control system. Our shop is using the saphira PN plate with no problems. The technician and phone support have been excellent. Phone support will solve your problem 99% of the time, it is rare that we have to call someone in.

Mike

[rpl1991]

Thanks Mike, I hope all works out well and from your advice you suggest that we dont necessarily need a plate desitometer.

Thanks Jaime

[Mike Herndon]

Originally Posted by rpl1991

Thanks Mike, I hope all works out well and from your advice you suggest that we dont necessarily need a plate desitometer.

Thanks Jaime

Well you could probably get by without but you should have one. We do still check our plates but we just don't see the variation like we used too. In fact we really haven't seen any variation. We use a X-Rite iCplate2 to check our plates. I've read the Techkon units are good as well. A Plate densitometer is nice to have when trouble shooting and what not just to confirm the dot your getting is the dot you want; helps eliminates variables. The lasers modules in the suprasetter are self calibrating and the imaging drum is temperature controlled for accuracy and repeatability. We just don't see the variation anymore that we used too, a nice change. Cheers!

Mike

[Mark.Ihlenfeldt@heidelberg.com]

Dear Jaime,
beside measuring the plate with densitometer, we recommend to image our Plate-Control-Strip onto each plate in the gripper edge (non print area above the punch holes). With these plate specifiy marks you can visually control the imaging and processing of the plate. No need for a plate densitometer. ;-)
The marks come with our Prinect Signastation.

Regards
Mark Ihlenfeldt
Product Management CtP
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG

[Printservedigital]

You only need a densitometer if doing regular quality control and system monitoring, I would insist we make sure we did an Ugra Step wedge, heat test and Density checks every day however we were running 3-5000 plates in every 24 hr period and up to 6500 at weekend in our prepress.

It was interesting to monitor when the chemistry change had been done, it also provided traceability for the relevant ISO/British Quality Standards. So we would also do intermediate laser calibration and Brush tensions as well, as specified above ensure your humidity and temp are controlled to supplier recommendations, there can be horrific problems all day long when the environmental conditions are out of specification. Slip-sheet removal being just one of the minor ones.

No CTP equipment is free of effects from environmental condition despite what all suppliers say.

You don't really need this info on a day to day basis, but when/If you have any problems it helps to provide you with a baseline and the data collected allows you to pin down the source of any issue quickly.

For example how would you prove to the production manager that say a roller bearing or finger guard was causing plate wear/plate issues when say the PM insists it's a prepress issue?

[rpl1991]

thanks for info guys, lots to learn from you all in the coming months, looking forward to it.