Scratched material Eskofot DPX

[doubting_thomas]

Recently we've been seeing some scratches on our
plate material, after imaging, as it works it's way through
our DPX activator and stabilizer tanks. The pattern runs
front to back on the plate, and the lines are the same distance
apart as the raised areas on the diamond plate that guides
the material through the paper path. Side to side it's uneven
as to where the scratching occurs. Has anyone seen this
type of scratching before so I can narrow down the areas
to look in. The scratches are just enough to remove a little
of the image, not strong enough to actually show up on the
unexposed material itself. It's more pronounced the further
down the plate, also. We're using Mitsubishi 8 mil Silver
Digiplate material in the DPX. I'm sure it's from the
diamond plate, or from something that has the same
distance from peak to peak as the diamond plate.

Any help would be appreciated, as well as a point in the
right direction.

 

[spectrecom]

scratches

scratches

Nearly all scratches are caused in the processor and mostly in the dryer section on DPXs. Check to make sure your guides were installed correctly after cleaning... Dave Cortez with Mitsubishi is up in your area, I'm sure he can help.

 

[doubting_thomas]

Thanks for the reply. A couple weeks ago I was able to
talk to a tech (not Dave, but I'd agree that he's very helpful),
and apparently the diamond plate wears out over time causing
the scratching that I'm seeing. His recommendation if replacing
the roller units, or rebuilding them.

 

[tommy-the-cat]

Dave has been to the shop I work at a few times. He's a wealth of knowledge. You get what you pay for with him. Costs allot, but knows everything about everything. Compliments to you Dave. Our DPX has had these types of issues every now and then. Looks to me that you know what you are doing, so I'll just add this one thing. On the drive side, there are plastic gears driving the processors. There were no obvious sigs of ware, but there was a slight "slip" that was giving us our problem. New plastic gear. A few bloody fingers. No scratches.

Good Luck!

 

[doubting_thomas]

Thanks for that pointer about the gears. We've replaced them 2 or three
times over the years, and keep an extra set (one for each tank) on the
floor. Gone through the cuts myself, but I can replace them. We had the
slipping issue a few weeks ago (worn teeth on the gears), and had a tech
in to run over everything on a courtesy call. That's when we discussed the
diamond plate scoring. Chuck Greenfield is who we generally use locally,
and he's very capable tech. I hope he doesn't get a cushy desk job
somewhere