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The problem is that the varnish we're using is CONVENTIONAL and cannot be cured by UV lamps. I have yet to see a non-reticulating UV varnish that when applied to a sheet and UV coated produces the same effect. We often put down our gloss UV coating and a matte/dull UV varnish on top for...

Could be a stock issue Could be a stock issue I recently ran into a similar problem on a cast coated sheet, and it turned out to be the stock. For whatever reason the coating (I tried both of our UV coatings) wouldn't lay down smooth and the gloss level was significantly less than normal. We...

Like Bob implied, your anilox roller will determine how much coating you can lay down. But 13 bcm should be fine. We use a 9 bcm with excellent results. Depending on how your press is configured and how demanding your production schedules are, you can also let the coating spread a little longer...

It's a machine, it can be fixed. It's a machine, it can be fixed. We had a similar problem on our KBA. Misregistration issues after the perfector in straight printing mode. It has since been corrected. It might cost you a big pile of money, but I'll bet it's something that can be fixed or at...

I appreciate the input from everybody. My question was not so much about how I should be working. I like to think that while I'm working I am always as productive and efficient as I can be. I'm more curious about finding out WHY a company would want the "paper productivity" tailored one way...

That's pretty much what I thought, a lie. Whichever way we're told to work the numbers, towards chargeability or towards efficiency, will not be beneficial in the long run if they aren't reflecting what's actually happening. So why would a company want to do this? What use does an accountant...

I'm trying to get my head around how a printing company (my employer in particular) looks at and interprets productivity reports, and how they make decisions based on the information received from a data collection system/MIS. I'm also interested in finding out how much of this information is...

Thank you both for such straightforward and accessible information. Meddington, I picked up one of the books you mentioned. I would still like to address a few of the points that were made in your responses. The press has been calibrated numerous times, and we have densitometric (This means...

I'm a press operator with a limited understanding of color management. I realize there are thousands of posts here as well as a wealth of information beyond that to explore, but I'd rather get schooled by people who deal with this daily and can provide tangible answers to a few simple questions...

Yes, you can do this on one pass with a UV press. You can do it in one pass on a conventional press as well, but it doesn't look as good as a dry trap and it sounds like your customer knows this.

When I first got moved up from floor bitch to feeder bitch, I worked on a 640 Heidelberg CD from about 1990 with a pressman who was really superstitious. He'd do things like tapping every unit when he walked up and down the press and crawling it a certain number of revolutions every night before...

I worked in a shop that bought one, and I would say that it's not really worth the investment. Yes, it's a really cool concept and a neat device to have around the pressroom. However, they're pretty touchy and don't allow much room for error. Anybody who's been around press operators knows how...

Thanks a lot, Freeman. I will most definitely be contacting you in the future with more questions :D

Are you talking about a bump streak that repeats water pickup from a hard edge at the gripper? Some remedies for this are: Ensure proper roller settings, especially in dampening unit Make sure pressures between plate/blanket are correct Feather blanket packing so that image transfer is a...

Excellent information, Bret and Alois! I really appreciate it. Now, the pdf you provided had standard print contrasts of K 40% C 36% M 36% Y 30% as acceptable or even desired numbers. Our shop standard is K 45-50% C 42%+ M 41%+ Y 32%+ and we get scrutinized when we can't achieve this on press...

Full UV inks gain more and have a very tight water window compared to conventional and hybrid UV inks. It could very well be my inexperience but from what I hear from other UV printers as well as our ink techs, this is an inherent characteristic of UV printing. The curing process has nothing to...

The problem isn't finding a UV cured varnish; we're already using those in different processes successfully. I'm looking for a UV strike-through varnish; one that reacts with the coating to achieve gloss-dull effects AND cures the way UV inks and varnishes do. Right now we're laying down a wet...

Thanks gordo ... excellent blog by the way.

Print contrast is a hot topic with my boss. He describes it as a measure of the difference between a solid and 75% screen. I've also been told it's the best way to tell if my press is balanced and that good print contrast will add POP! to an image that would otherwise look flat. From what I've...

Concentric screening is something I've heard management talking about for a while now. We've run two test forms and are apparently heading in that direction for our standard screening. I've read some literature on it but can't find much practical information about how it acts on press, what I...