DPM 2340 Scratches on Plates. Please Help!

Discussion in 'Platemaking' started by jpfulton, Apr 29, 2016.

  1. jpfulton

    jpfulton Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    I'm getting vertical scratches on my plates. They are very fine, tend to be near the bottom of the plates and are so numerous they can't be counted. The problem seems to come and go in terms of severity but when it comes we'll see them on maybe 30 plates in a row before we start to notice that the problem has gotten better. The scratches are not identical on every single plate but tend to be quite similar to one another. I'm going to outline the diagnosis steps we've taken and the our experience trying to get rid of them.

    Diagnosis:
    1. Ran a plate with exit conveyor thing removed and guided the plate out of the unit by hand so that it wouldn't touch anything past the stabilizer squeegee rollers. Scratches seen on plate. (not the exit conveyor)
    2. Removed stabilizer rack and ran plate. Plate drops into stabilizer bath. Check plate and find scratches on plate. (not the stabilizer rack)
    3. Removed activator rack, flipped entrance thing with segmented rollers forward, opened doors to DPM (and shoved cardboard into the "doors open detecting switches"), turned off all lights in the room, ran plate. Plate comes down the vertical conveyor I grab the plate and gently guide it down into the activator. Let it sit in activator bath for a few minutes. Pull it out, turn lights on, check plate. NO SCRATCHES ON PLATE!!! So the determination is that the problem is the entrance thing or the activator rack.

    Fix attempts:
    1. Thoroughly clean everything. Never really got a good training on this so any input much appreciated. Drained chemicals, filled with a little water, drain, wipe down with paper towel. Disassemble racks. Rinse with water. Use CLR on anything that is submerged in chemicals. Rinse. Dry. Apply polishing compound (purchased at O'Reilly's) with damp applicator pad. Buff with lint free towel. Re-assemble racks. Fill chemicals. Done.
    2. After above cleaning scratches still persist.
    3. Problem becomes less severe for a little while for seemingly no reason.
    4. Problem becomes very bad again and I try just cleaning/polishing the activator rack and the entrance assembly without replacing chemicals and without cleaning stabilizer rack.
    5. Scratches ever so slightly improved (some of the time) but mostly appear unaffected.
    6. Desperate post on colorprintingforum.

    Thank you. Really hope someone can help.
     
  2. pmc8899

    pmc8899 Member

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    When you cleaned everything did you remove to two guides for the plates? That's where I usually get scratches from. You'd have had to remove the paddle roller to get to the inside one and separated that one, also cleaned the small guide where the plate enters the transport.
     
  3. jpfulton

    jpfulton Member

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    Location:
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    Yep, we completely tear apart both racks including all of the guides and the paddle thing. Once we have it all apart we rinse the guides under water to get rid of the chemicals then apply CLR with a soft-ish sponge as to not scratch the guides. After CLR we rinse the air dry. Once dry we apply polishing compound with an applicator pad then buff off with a lint-free cloth.
     

  4. pmc8899

    pmc8899 Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2013
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    Location:
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    the only other thing I could see doing that is the take-up cassette or the guides going from the take-up to the transports. There's also two pairs of rollers maybe they have crunchies from evaporated developer. can you post a pic of the scratched plates
     
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