Ecomaxx plates and FM screening

[Prepper]

Does anyone here have any experience running FM or stochastic screening with the Ecomaxx plates? We run them on our web for text only, tried them on our Heideberg a few years back and had several issues, not all were plate related though, and are trying them again but since last time we have switched from 175AM screening to 20 micron FM screening so just wondering if there's any actual users out there doing this successfully?

 

[gordo]

Does anyone here have any experience running FM or stochastic screening with the Ecomaxx plates? We run them on our web for text only, tried them on our Heideberg a few years back and had several issues, not all were plate related though, and are trying them again but since last time we have switched from 175AM screening to 20 micron FM screening so just wondering if there's any actual users out there doing this successfully?

Have you spoken to Fuji? They should be able to give you the proper specifications for their plates. Their published specifications are pretty unclear/vague "1-99% at 200 lpi conventional and 300 lpi FM and hybrid screening technologies" The "1-99% at 200 lpi conventional" suggests (to me) that they can do 20 micron FM but it might be problematic since the smallest halftone dot size doable is 2 pixels (on a 2,400 dpi device). If you need to image a 10 micron dot or alternate between a single pixel and two pixel dot - as with 20 micron FM you may have some inconsistencies.

 

[Prepper]

Yes, it is rated to be capable of that, our rep says he knows of no one else in our area even using FM so I was really just curious if anyone out there has actually done this and made it work. I was more concerned with the plates cleaning up well on press with the smaller dots. Not whether it is imaged and will hold onto the plate but how well all the coating in between all those tiny dots comes off on roll up.