DPM2340 plate issues

Discussion in 'Platemaking' started by arrants, Jan 22, 2014.

  1. arrants

    arrants New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 2013
    Messages:
    4
    Location:
    Hartsville, SC
    Hello, all.

    My shop produces black poly plates on an AB Dick DPM2340 platemaker.
    We have always used the required AB Dick Mega-plate chemistry.
    and the 12" wide 5mil roll plate material.
    We have several quality issues with the plates that the machine produces.
    There is a consistent spot about the size of a quarter in one of the leading edge corners that appears to be undeveloped. Sometimes this "spot" runs down the length of the plate as an under-developed stripe. The stripe coincides with the path of the rollers that pull the plate down into the activator bath.
    Also we just discovered that there are 2 lines of very tiny dots that also run the length of the plate. The dots are at regular intervals but I do not see that they match any points on the platepath.
    We had an AB Dick tech clean the imaging mirror. It was very dirty and he found a scratch on it. He said (and I believe him - I watched the entire cleaning process) that he did not scratch the mirror. I think that the scratch had been on the mirror for some time and was just not affecting it.
    I'll admit that due to lack of knowledge and also trying to squeeze all of the good out of a batch of chemistry that the machine has not been cleaned and maintenanced as well as it should have been. I'm sure that many if not all of the rollers need to be replaced simply due to the age of the machine (12 or so years). Orders have been down for several years so we have not had the available funds to keep the machine in best operating condition. Just paying for the above tech call was a severe strain on the budget.
    Can anyone help before I have to spend another several hundred dollars on another tech call?
    Thanks.
     
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