Better Two-Color press than Ryobi 2700

[jotterpinky]

We are currently printing all of our two-color work on a small Ryobi 2700 duplicator with T-head. Recently we've printed a number of projects that I feel have been marginal on quality. There are two basic problems we are experiencing.

1. Dust leaving specks on heavy solids
2. Large Solids are not "solid" rather mottled looking and we have trouble keeping the solid nice and uniform across a 8.5x11 sheet.

We've always experienced trouble in these respects but would like to upgrade to something that will be less troublesome. We're possibly looking at moving towards a true two-color press like a Ryobi 3302 or perhaps a QM-46 two color.

Is there a press you would recommend that will help us with these issues?

 

[RGPW17100]

The T head is what is hurting you. Even if your main press had a decent dampening system like crestline or dahlgren the T head shares water with the main press. A Quick master will give you better solids and allow quicker back up times then the 3302 but because of only one blanket your wet trapping will not look as good. The 3302 in my opinion would be a better machine for you. You already know how to run a 2700 so sheet separators and air system and most of the controls will be familiar to your press operator. Another advantage to the 3302 is because they have been around for so long getting a mechanic in and parts is much more affordable then the Quickmaster. I would stay away from Hamada or even a GTO. You will loose speed and your ability to run smaller sheets and envelopes will be more problematic.

 

[maynard105]

The 3302 is great machine but it will not beat a printmaster for productivity and quality.The printmaster will run ncr at 9500+ an hour for half a shift and then lay down beautiful solids and screens on 130# cover for the most ballbustin clients you can think of.But.....theres always a but...you need to understand the nuances of wet trapping on one blanket, easily its biggest deficiency.Better yet just spend some real money and get a Speedmaster 52-2 landscape fed 14x20 and print anything quickly and easily.yeah thats the ticket.......Speedmaster.
mikem

 

[jotterpinky]

Maynard105, when you say "The 3302 is great machine but it will not beat a printmaster for productivity and quality" do you mean a Quickmaster?

We've looked at several used QM46-2's but many seem to have a lot of impressions. What kind of life could we expect to get. One we've looked at had 40million imp. Is that nearly worn out?

With regards to the "Dust leaving specks" in solids do either of these machines combat this problem better than our Ryobi 2700 or is this just something we will have to deal with?

RGPW17100, you mentioned that the T-head is hurting us on heavy solids, if we disengage and run the job in two passes would you expect to get better solids using the main unit?

 

[RGPW17100]

Depends on the dampening system you have. If you have the original one with the chrome roller that goes between the pan roller and the upper oscillator then no. You need a better dampening system like a crestline or dahlgren or compact. You will get better solids on two passes with this dampening system. A printmaster is what the Quick Master evolved into. Heidelberg was in such a hurry to put the QM 46/2 into production there where multiple bugs they had to work out. When they fixed all of them they released the QM46. We have 30 million imps on our QM46 but the earlier machines had a flaw so registration would drift between the two units and all of them I have printed on the first unit prints a tad longer then the second unit. I agree about solids and backing up on the Printmaster, Quick master but the wet trapping is the biggest issue. If you take the sucker feet off on the 3302 you can run carbonless at 10000 all day without a problem. Biggest drawback to the ryobi is not as good solids and the inability to back jobs up due to the infeed rollers marking the sheet.

If you buy a used QM46 make sure you bring plenty of 12x 18 inch stock and bring plate that have hair line trapping through out the entire sheet as well as crops and registration marks. They may have had the cylinder updated to fix the original problem but I would not buy it if you cant get registration.

Powder marks on the sheet is something you will have to live with. You can try and dry hit the sheet a couple of times through the press to knock off some of the hickey causing stuff but with a single blanket press you will not get far with this tactic.

 

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2 color printing

2 color printing

The Heidelberg 46-2 is great for productivity, but generally speaking, the 3302 with 2 blankets can provide better quality than a common blanket press.

Obviously, there are press operators who are more comfortable with one machine than the other & I'm sure there are people who insust they can do a better job on the Heidelberg.

But if I had to make the decision, I would go for a 2 blanket press (Ryobi 3302) which also allows a bit more accuracy for printing more than 2 colors (multiple passes).

Dave

 

[acacia print]

Very interesting posts. I concure that two seporate blankets are the way to go. Also light weight machines simply do not press the ink of solids into the paper as well as a more robust press will. To help with your solids picking up "Dust" try adding in a good amount of gelled ink reducer this works very well, but there are limits. too much though and the ink water ballance becomes a issue. I reduce inks until the ink imediately but slowly and steadily runs off the ink knife. It should not be the consistancey of water! It should not move as slowly as a snail on a leaf either. Make sure that your guilotine blade is sharp. De dust the edges of cut sheets quickly with a soft rag to catch and remove any loose dust particles.