Accuset 1400 - black is not black enough

[lkavan]

Hallo Friends,
finally, I am able to print on my Accuset. I have used Appletalk drivers from WIN2K and Adobe Illustrator 8.0, all at Win XP. Nice, that works! I need to make films for PCB samples production, so I need full white and full black only. But unfortunatelly, I am not able to get the black dark enough. The piece of film, which is always out of casette and it is on daylight, this part is always black as the hell, but black areas, which are lighted by machine, they are much more light. I have set density to 255 on machine's menu, I also bought new chemicals to process the film and still it is not black enough. Do you have some idea what to change? Is it possible, there is some dust at optical way nad optical power is not enough? Can be laser to old with low power?

 

[maxon]

How much lighter is the image ? Make sure the film is red sensitive and check the roll emulsion side.

 

[BartS]

Have you checked the developer temperature and time? What kind of film you use. My Agfa HNS film has a max. density of D4.2 with ACD developer.
Cleaning the optics of the imagesetter is important but shouldn't make a big difference in density. I don't know how to check the laser power.

 

[Willett]

Hallo Friends,
finally, I am able to print on my Accuset. I have used Appletalk drivers from WIN2K and Adobe Illustrator 8.0, all at Win XP. Nice, that works! I need to make films for PCB samples production, so I need full white and full black only. But unfortunatelly, I am not able to get the black dark enough. The piece of film, which is always out of casette and it is on daylight, this part is always black as the hell, but black areas, which are lighted by machine, they are much more light. I have set density to 255 on machine's menu, I also bought new chemicals to process the film and still it is not black enough. Do you have some idea what to change? Is it possible, there is some dust at optical way nad optical power is not enough? Can be laser to old with low power?

Hi There.
Couple of things to look out for with density.
Make sure you are adjusting the density for the resolution you are printing at.
1200dpi will be a different setting to 2400dpi. I think you can run an internal test page that will produce stepped density pattern so that you can pick the correct value.
What rip are you using? density might also be set there also
If all else fails you might have to remove the laser optics unit at the bottom of the machine and clean the spin motor mirror.
Hope this helps

 

[lkavan]

Hi There.
Couple of things to look out for with density.
Make sure you are adjusting the density for the resolution you are printing at.
1200dpi will be a different setting to 2400dpi.

Hallo Willett,
thanx for answer. Yes, I know, that density settings is different for each resolution, I have checked this.

I think you can run an internal test page that will produce stepped density pattern so that you can pick the correct value.

This I have made, black is still not enough when I have set density to max. - 255

What rip are you using?

It has internal Star RIP.

density might also be set there also
If all else fails you might have to remove the laser optics unit at the bottom of the machine and clean the spin motor mirror.
Hope this helps

Thanx, I think, optics cleaning can be good step. Is it too complicated? Can I destroy something?

 

[ChrisZ]

Take a piece of film, expose to sunlight, than run through processor and check black density.

 

[lkavan]

Take a piece of film, expose to sunlight, than run through processor and check black density.

Yes, this I have made. When I remove casette from machine, cca. 5cm piece of film is out from casette and exposed to the daylight. This part of film is always total black, but image from Accuset is not so nice black. I tried different processing times, temperatures etc. but result is always the same - daylight exposed film part is nice black, image is lighter :-(

 

[Repro_Pro]

Look if you can find a filter in the beam path.
If you find one - try to remove it an expose a test film.

 

[maxon]

Check emulsion side.
Check roll year of manufacture or 'best before' stamp on label, the film may be old. Replace with a different batch.