Offset varnishing a digital job, among other questions...

[Angie]

We recently installed a Ricoh Pro C5100s and I have a couple of questions:

1: Is it possible to run a job on the Ricoh and then take it out to our offset sheetfed department and apply INX OSF Vision Plus varnish? Of course there is the static issues to contend with in the feeder. More concerned as to how well it would adhere & dry time.

2: Variable data....Anyone have any thoughts about the Fusion Pro software? I viewed the demos online and it seems pretty straight forward and user friendly. Interested in any pros or cons of any VD software out there.

3: What, if anything, can be done to reduce the static from the printed pieces? From what I have been told it is just the nature of the beast.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I love having this resource available

 

[Russ_G]

1. If the c5100s use oil in the fuser i doubt it would work to varnish it offset, if it is oiless with the exception of feeding issues it might work.

2. Fusion pro is and excellent product IMO, reasonable learning curve and very capable.

3. Static - not much you can do that I'm aware of, it's a byproduct of digital machines. Our nexpress had humidfier built in, our KM has antistatic after the fuser, neither did much to reduce static, if the job had to go through additional finishing steps it was still a problem.

 

[lfelton]

In my experience there is a lot of ignorance in the industry about static, very few real experts and most manufacturers of digital presses and most manufacturers of digital finishing equipment are lacking in even basic knowledge.

Here's what I've learnt through trial and error, maybe it will help you. Static dissipates naturally, but can only do so effectively if relative humidity (RH) is fairly high. Different seasons and different weather conditions will affect the RH dramatically. Air conditioning will tend to reduce RH. Our print areas and paper storage areas are now very tightly controlled to keep the temperature and RH constant 24/7. We keep the temperature at 22 degrees C and RH at 55%. 55% is right at the high end of the "Q-Zone" for most digital presses, so we can't go higher. You need industrial strength humidifier equipment. At this time of year it is pretty surprising how much water we need to put into the air to keep it at 55%. When we are shut down for an extended period (i.e. holidays, weekends that we're not working), we allow the temperature to vary between 17 and 26 degrees (depending on the ambient temperature) but keep RH constant at 55%. Since implementing this properly, we have no detectable static on our print output. That does not mean there are no static problems in the print finishing equipment! Some finishing equipment generates a LOT of static. This seems to be mostly where sheets are rubbed together at high speed. Very high speed feeders and accumulators (for instance in high speed set feeders) are our worst case. No matter how well the equipment is grounded, it's not enough to help much. We're lucky to have a proactive company that supplies and maintains a lot of our finishing kit (IFS) and the solution that currently seems most promising is ion blowers in the feed area and areas where printed sheets are rubbed together (i.e. accumulators).

 

[Russ_G]

In my experience there is a lot of ignorance in the industry about static, very few real experts and most manufacturers of digital presses and most manufacturers of digital finishing equipment are lacking in even basic knowledge.

It's not ignorance as much as the lack of control over our environment, especially at the operator level. Most of us are fully aware that if we could perfectly control our humidity levels static would not be and isssue, but since I'm not an expert I probably shouldn't have posted my opinion.