has anyone had ink drying problem lately
a lot of the offset printers in the new york, new jersey area are all having the same drying problems.
most of us run uncoated stocks
thanks
frank

Are you running the skin free type inks???
I noticed on the skin free inks. Its drys good on coated stock. It does seem to have a problem on uncoated. I put a little drier in the inks and that helps.

Maybe something in the water has changed so you need to alter your pH settings meaning if the pH of the water has changed to more, and you keep adding the same amount of pH agent, you are printing on higher pH levels thus your ink doesnt dry fast enough or at all. If you printed on coated stock it wouldnt be that apparent.

So many varibles..
Few things to check.
1) check your PH/conductivity of your fount to make sure it's still correct.
2) check with your ink supplier to make sure that they haven't changed the make up of the ink at all.
3) check that the substrate your printing on is in fact that the same that you have always printed on.


If a few stores are having the same issue, most likely all are using different chemistry/inks but highly likely their all using the same substrate from the same vendor, + the same water...
We use RO water and add a hardner, that way we know it's consistant day in day out..

What brand ink are you using? there is a certain brand over there that has been having issues due to a change within the ink manufacturing. (H/S)

I had similar problems for me a ph of 4.9 and conductivity of around 1400 work well if you buy a ph and a conductivity tester your problems will probably go away a test from your ink tech service will give you a starting point and you can test yourself after that also if running a technotrans or something like that weekly cleaning gives better results in our case the ink company sent their chemist he set the ph and now we are finishing jobs within an hour of printing ,hope this helps

Has a new sales rep in the area tried to push a starch based anti set-off spray powder onto you?