Screen PTR and Azura TS

[tomcatinc]

Company I work for had Presstek Dimension 800 and Dimension Excel 425 in last five years. Plates that were used are Presstek Anthem and Anthem Pro in the beginning and later on Azura and Azura TS.
Presstek is sold and in next few days we are going to get used Screen PTR 4100. Since it will be installed by a technician that will not setup the Azura TS plate (that is the deal and I can not change it) and I have read the Screen PTR user manual, can anybody help with recommended parameters for imaging Azura TS? Since there are two variables (power and RPM) that would produce infinite number of combinations, it would be nice to have a start.
It would be easy to calibrate the output as soon as the plate would become stable at imaging, of course.
Thank you in advance!

[seejay]

if you contact your agfa supplier they should be able to give you the relevant parameters. And if you talk to them really nicely, they may even send somebody in to set it up for you!

[tomcatinc]

I highly doubt that, since our Agfa plate supplier is just dealer, selling plates and paper and inks and other printing chemicals.
Other supplier did not contact us after inquiry.
I tried to contact Agfa through web site and still no response.
Therefore I'm forced to seek another solution.
Thanks!

[DCurry]

First, congrats on getting rid of Presstek. We dumped our Dimension 800 for an Agfa Avalon (really a Screen 8600) in January and are loving life after a challenging 5 years with the Presstek setup.

I'll check out my setup on Monday and see if I can figure out what RPM and what power settings I'm at.

I'd be surprised if your plate supplier can't help you out or get you in touch with someone who can. Their business depends on your success in getting the plates set up correctly. You might also want to contact Screen to see if they have a recommended starting point for the Azura plate.

SteveAgfa - any advice here for your plate customer?

[SteveAgfa]

TomCat:

If you are located in the US/Canada - call 1-800-TRY-AGFA and they'll get you going in the right direction.

If you are located outside of the US/Canada, please PM me with your coordinates, and I'll forward the request the right direction.

Regards,

[DCurry]

TomCat, I poked around on my machine and can't find the info. A lot of the maintenance screens are password-protected.

[tomcatinc]

Steve Agfa and DCurry, thanks for a good will to help and effort! It is much appreciated!

[DCurry]

Please let us know how you make out.

[SteveAgfa]

TomCat and Dan:

FYI - I've sent Tom's contact info to our colleagues in Belgium.

Regards,

[spectrecom]

You must first run a focus test, that is very important.

Then run a speed sweep. On the TS plates they are faster than the older Azura Plates but not as fast as standard chemical plates. I start at 500 RPM at 95% power. Increment up by 50 RPM. You might find you are around 650 rpm...look for the 50% dot to be 50% and the focus triangles to be clearly defined, the 5% and 95% dots as well. You must trade off speed for longevity of image on press, the slower you image to harder the emulsion will be but the longer you will be standing around (like the TSA) waiting for plates, if you are a short run shop you can speed it up. You may have to tweak it later.

You will need to check dot lineralization. It should be close, within 2%.

I run the sweep test plate right on the press on the black cylinder, on the faster strips you might notice motley looking patches where parts of the dots are coming off the plate, pick the cleanest looking strip for your speed.

Good luck