Importance of PH and filtered water

[itsaprintshop]

Would like to talk about the importance the PH and how it effects poly plates, ink, and of course print quality.

After 5 years of bindery I'm finding myself running light 4 color work on a 2 color Hamada, most 8 1/2 x 11 sheets on an AB Dick 9810 and Envelopes on a Halm Jet.

The AB Dick is rather tolerant of any mixture of universal Pink, IPA, and Water. I stick with 4 oz of IPA, 3 oz of Pink and 25 oz of water.

Hamada is pretty temperamental, I can go a few months with a mixture then I'm hit with a coming up with a new formula. Lately I've been using
5oz of Anchor and 2 oz IPA to 2 gallons of water. In the past I've run 15 oz of Pink and 2 oz IPA to 1 gallon of water. I try to avoid IPA on the Hamada since I'm told it doesn't need it.

Halm is doing okay - 15 oz of pink and 2 oz of IPA to each gallon of water.


Poly plates occasionally wear out at 5-7,000. Average run is 3k. (lately they have been 10-12k) The plate salesmen says 1 thing and the press repair guy says the opposite.

I try the advice given, and nothing really seems to last long - a few months at best.

Picked up a PH test kit and I'm finding that its higher than 6. Using vinegar I've been able to lower it down to 3.5. and things seem to be OK.

So is tap water to blame, should it really be filtered?

What are you using and are you using tap water?

 

[Dan Roll]

Anchor makes a lot of different fountain solutions, which one are you using

 

[itsaprintshop]

Anchor Emerald Jr

 

[Dan Roll]

What type of dampening system does you Hamada have?

 

[itsaprintshop]

hamada = kompac

 

[Dan Roll]

You might ask whomever you buy the Emerald JR from if they can get you a sample of the Anchor 2912 MXEH product. This formula might be a better choice (you need to run five ounces per gallon, no alcohol would be necessary) than the JR, which is not really intended to be run by itself....

 

[tomatron]

Would like to talk about the importance the PH and how it effects poly plates, ink, and of course print quality.

After 5 years of bindery I'm finding myself running light 4 color work on a 2 color Hamada, most 8 1/2 x 11 sheets on an AB Dick 9810 and Envelopes on a Halm Jet.

The AB Dick is rather tolerant of any mixture of universal Pink, IPA, and Water. I stick with 4 oz of IPA, 3 oz of Pink and 25 oz of water.

Hamada is pretty temperamental, I can go a few months with a mixture then I'm hit with a coming up with a new formula. Lately I've been using
5oz of Anchor and 2 oz IPA to 2 gallons of water. In the past I've run 15 oz of Pink and 2 oz IPA to 1 gallon of water. I try to avoid IPA on the Hamada since I'm told it doesn't need it.

Halm is doing okay - 15 oz of pink and 2 oz of IPA to each gallon of water.


Poly plates occasionally wear out at 5-7,000. Average run is 3k. (lately they have been 10-12k) The plate salesmen says 1 thing and the press repair guy says the opposite.

I try the advice given, and nothing really seems to last long - a few months at best.

Picked up a PH test kit and I'm finding that its higher than 6. Using vinegar I've been able to lower it down to 3.5. and things seem to be OK.

So is tap water to blame, should it really be filtered?

What are you using and are you using tap water?

Forget about poly plates and go back to metal! What your supplier is not telling you or doesn't realize is that poly plates will no longer be available in the very near future. Do a price comparison and you will find that poly plates are NO LONGER CHEAPER than running metal!!!

I didn't believe it myself when a supplier told me but when I priced them out the metal was cheaper. The price of silver over the years has been creeping up and thus so have been the poly plates.

Check it out, you will be glad you did.

 

[Dan Roll]

Tomatron is right, rapidly escalating silver prices will soon drive silver halide image plates off the market.

 

[Alois Senefelder]

Hurrah

Hurrah

Hello fellow Lithographers,


Hurrah, for the demise of Polyester Plates, the future is Pre-sensitised Plates - 70% less On Press Problems - NOW



Regards, Alois

 

[D Ink Man]

Lending my experience I will say this to what I have learned. If you start with bad water, it does not matter what etch/sub or any combination thereof you use. You need treated water. This can be RO, de-ionized or other.

A simple minimum cost expenditure would be to go to your local grocery store and buy some quantity of distilled water. Something like 1 gallon or 5 gallon containers of say Deer Park. Doesn't matter what brand of water you use, just that it be pure, filtered and as unchemicalized as possible.

Try this first itsaprintshop.

D

Try this first sir

 

[kirby]

I have not heard that poly plates won't be around in the near future. Where might I find the news from a reliable source on this.

 

[tomatron]

Just ask your supplier! Or, price out metal to see if its cheaper, then it wont matter to you whether or not they will be making these plates in the future. Unless you don't have the resources to image metal plates. If you do why would you want to run poly over metal?

 

[kirby]

I will do that. At the moment we do not have the resources for metal plates without negatives and such. We have looked into CTP but have not purchased yet. Thanks again for the info.