I have a Heidelberg QM 46-2 with what I think is a bad water metering roller in the 2nd color unit. It is pitted on the non-op side and lately I'm having water problems. The quality that's coming off the 2nd color unit is ok but the ink(s) look a little washed out. Holding true color (pms) is proving to be more and more difficult. My question(s) are these, does anyone out there know if a pitted roller will cause the system to carry more water than needed and has anyone out there had this problem of the pitting of the roller. I went ahead and ordered a new roller and will install it myself in hopes of correcting this situ but I'm concerned about the pitting problem...what could have caused the pitting in the first place?

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Joe Bean
c/o Sir Speedy Downtown San Diego

yes that probaly is the problem,is it a Hberg roller?or aftermarket brand.how old is it?It could just be age. It could be wash up fluid or fountain solution ..you will never get a straight answer from the big H !! although they are now selling products that they garauntee too work .what are you using for fountain and wash up fluids?

No it isn't a Heidelberg roller. I believe it's a syntac. I just purchased a lith-o-roll roller and hope that it cures the problem. My expereince in the trade (35 years) tells me that this is whats happening, the pittedness is allowing the machine to carry too much water on the non-op side in turn allowing the overall amount of water to be too much. I have been running Heidi crystala fountain concentrate with the polyester plates and it works well. Another issue is the cause of this ptting....I noticed it about 6 months ago
and it has progressivley gotten worse to the point that it looks like someone has saned the roller down with very course sandpaper. I suppose if this doesn't work then I will have to figure something else out.

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Joe Bean
c/o Sir Speedy Downtown San Diego