Screen Platesetter

[gumbylives]

I was wondering if there is a way to reducing the size of the solid bars at the top and bottom of the plates. Because our cutoff goes into this area and if we print right to the size the bar prints as well. I don't want to use a deletion pen every time. Any help would be appreciated.

[Cory Smith]

what platesetter do you have? the solid bars are usually clamp areas, so there is no way to image them out.

[gumbylives]

I Thought so....it was worth a try....

[marktonk]

Hi Gumbylives,

It depends on the model you have, some of the 8 up Screen devices could reduce the clamps by slowing down the output drum speed from 900 to 600 rpm. This would reduce the clamps from 12 mm to 8 mm on lead and trailing edge. I do not think you can on the 4 ups. What model do you have? What size are the clamps?

You are using a positive plate, you expose the background. Cory is right, you can not expose the through the clamps so the background can not develop. If the clamps are not an area you need to image in, you can switch to a negative plate. with a Negative plate, you are imaging the dots and not the background so what is under the clamps does not get exposed but will not be a ink receptive stripe.What plate are you using?

Regards,

Mark Tonkovich
Heidelberg USA
Product Manager, CtP & Proofing

[gumbylives]

Hi,
We have a Screen Thermal Plate Recorder PlateRite 4300. I do not know the size of the clamps.
cheers
Gumby

[marktonk]

Hi Gumby,

Your clamps are the stripes, should be 15 mm lead edge and 12 mm trailing. If you do not need to expose image there, switching to a negative plate will eliminate the stripes. Another option is to expose a larger plate and trim it down.

Did you have the CtP before the press? If not, ask the person that sold it to you why they did not take this into consideration.....maybe they can help with one of the suggested solutions.

Regards,

Mark Tonkovich
Heidelberg USA
Product Manager, CtP & Proofing