Fountain solution mix?

Starr19

Member
Hello,

We just went to Fuji Pro T plates and are having some trouble with developing. Can anyone tell me there fountain solution mix, how much alcohol sub they are adding to there water?

(One tech company recommend adding a shot of gum per gallon... not sure if thats the best idea.)


-Thanks

Gary
 
Re: Fountain solution mix?

Hi there,

Not sure the route your going is the best but only you know your exact situation. Fuji should know of a conductivity and PH at which there plates were designed to run at. You say there having trouble developing the plates, is this to agressive or to weak. I assume to agressive as your asked to drop gum into the fount to help with desensitising the plate?. I have limited experience of alcohol substitutes so i would only offer very poor advice but the problem seems to be with the plates not the fount soloution, as i gain more experience i begin to think that if you optimise for one problem it usually creates another at the oposite end of the spectrum, so deal with the development issue and save yourself bearing the burden later on.

Paul
 
Re: Fountain solution mix?

Thanks for the input...

The plates roll up with lots of scum on the lead edge. The pressmen have to hand wash the plates which is time consuming. Today I watch one pressman do about 200 revolutions, and the plates still had some scumming problems. Im not sure what else can be done except mixing the fountain solution differently. Has anyone had any luck with Fuji Pro T plates and not had to hand wipe them?

thanks,
 
Re: Fountain solution mix?

There is a bad bunch of two part fountain solution going around our area; I will not state the brand here. Your best bet is to contact your Fuji rep and have them come in, review what you are doing and get help that way.
I know of five shops here that are struggling with plates not only processless but also longer running thermals as well. The testing that followed in those shops proved that the plates were okay but the fountain solution, a different brand than Fuji but in all the shops was the problem. Conductivity was jumping up two and three times the normal level very quickly.

The gum was not to desensitize as someone else suggested but to activate the cleaning out. This only works with Fuji's FN-6 gum. One of its ingredients acts as a quasi catalyst for development.

John W
 
Re: Fountain solution mix?

We have been using the Pro-T since January, but we process the plates before putting them on the press. We did a demo of the plate where we processed it on press and it worked pretty well on our Heidelber MO with alcolor but it didn't work very well at all on our GTO's with a conventional/bareback dampener. During the demo what worked best was to take a sponge and wet down the plates before starting the press and then they cleaned up within a few revolutions. I know that alcohol subs are the key to getting the plate to process quickly. If your pressman are willing to wet down the plates first I would suggest adding a small amount of alcohol sub to a bucket of water and give it a try.

We pre-process our plates because our presses don't have CIP3 and we can see the image much better for presetting the fountains. It also bothered me that the emulsion goes into the ink train. They tell me that it comes out with the first few sheets, but for a lot of our 1 and 2 color jobs that are imprints, etc. we only have a few sheets to spare.

In my opinion if you don't find a quick and painless solution to processing them on press, ask Fuji for a processor if you don't have one that will work. We converted our old conventional one and it works OK.
 
Re: Fountain solution mix?

The press is a Ryobi 684
it is running a pre damp of 4 (which can only be universally changed. If we bump it up, every time the press starts it will do that number)


Thank you for your time..

-Gary

Edited by: Gary on Apr 29, 2008 2:31 PM
 
Re: Fountain solution mix?

We start with R/O water and use four ounces of Prisco 3451U and 2 ounces of Alcohol Sub Prisco 6000. Our tanks are small five gallons so we dont worry about conductivity getting to high because were constantly adding in fresh. Prisco is pretty good and I would at least call a rep and ask for his advice on solution and sub.
 
Kid Leo, if you're still out there, we are in same boat right now with the Ecomaxx-T, not cleaning up good on press, wanting to try developing them in our old processor and was wondering what you used in the processor to accomplish this?
Thanks
 
We fought this issue with the Fuji proT plates. Our press an SM52 with alcolor using 7 percent alcohol. We tried everything and finally went to Azura plates from Agfa. Fuji dealer was out here a couple of months ago trying to sell the new ecomax plate and he brought in a few samples and it was the same finish as the Pro T. We used some kind of citrus smelling presswash to cut the finish. We tried fountain, alcohol, ammonia, cylinder desensitizer and the only thing that worked well was the press wash. If fuji cant come up with an answer you really should switch plates.
 
RGPW17100,

What's your take on the Azura? Would you recommend them over say a regular process thermal plate?
Is it just water you use in the rinse of the processor for the Azura? If not just water, is it something you have to dispose of or can simply go in waste water?

Thanks
 
RGPW17100,
Forgot to mention that our press is a SM72 with Alcolor also, have ran both ways, sub and alcohol.
 

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