Hi folks! I'm new to the forum and have a question that I'm extremely hopeful someone can help me out with:
My company has battled a problem with plates since long before I joined the organization (<2 years ago). We experience an inordinate amount of what appear to be handling scratches and the dreaded fingerprints. The problem appears to be exacerbated when humidity season rolls around (although our shop is fully climate-controlled) and management wants to nail that as the sole source of the problem paying very little mind to the possibility of chemistry or plate (Kodak) problems....
I work for a company that has home-grown, literally, 98% of its staff and that has a universally limited appreciation for what I call the real world of printing. The one thing I know for a fact (having worked for seven different organizations in five different states over the years) is that I have never *never* seen a scratch/fingerprint problem like we have here. I should also mention that I have worked in climate-controlled shops as well as two dreadful shops that didn't even have A/C, never mind real climate-controls. At one shop, we measured nightly humidity rates as high as 90% during the summer. I'm talking condensation dripping off of everything and webs getting soaked at the chills everytime you had to stop the press.
The point of all that blabber is that, in spite of the widely varied environmental conditions I've worked in, I've still never seen this kind of problem with plates. I'm a chemistry guy myself, but my education is far more advanced at the press (fountain solution, ink, etc.), than it is in pre-press. Is there any advice someone could pass along that I could maybe bring to our pre-press manager as a suggestion to help prod him in the right direction with these problems?
Thanks!
)
My company has battled a problem with plates since long before I joined the organization (<2 years ago). We experience an inordinate amount of what appear to be handling scratches and the dreaded fingerprints. The problem appears to be exacerbated when humidity season rolls around (although our shop is fully climate-controlled) and management wants to nail that as the sole source of the problem paying very little mind to the possibility of chemistry or plate (Kodak) problems....
I work for a company that has home-grown, literally, 98% of its staff and that has a universally limited appreciation for what I call the real world of printing. The one thing I know for a fact (having worked for seven different organizations in five different states over the years) is that I have never *never* seen a scratch/fingerprint problem like we have here. I should also mention that I have worked in climate-controlled shops as well as two dreadful shops that didn't even have A/C, never mind real climate-controls. At one shop, we measured nightly humidity rates as high as 90% during the summer. I'm talking condensation dripping off of everything and webs getting soaked at the chills everytime you had to stop the press.
The point of all that blabber is that, in spite of the widely varied environmental conditions I've worked in, I've still never seen this kind of problem with plates. I'm a chemistry guy myself, but my education is far more advanced at the press (fountain solution, ink, etc.), than it is in pre-press. Is there any advice someone could pass along that I could maybe bring to our pre-press manager as a suggestion to help prod him in the right direction with these problems?
Thanks!
)
