QMDI plate wash up

Recently our plate washers do not clean up the plates very well (these are not difficult areas to clean such as simple 4-color images screened text etc)
Our water tubes are working well and the cloths are nice and wet. we use 3-oz of Heidelberg 1124 solution to 1-gal of distilled water. Our cloth rolls are advancing fine. The rubber membranes puff up when we test them (not sure if it is enough pressure or not?). We are using Presstek Pearl Dry plates.
Also when we hand wipe them with alcohol we have to do it 3-4 times before we can print clean. The alcohol we have been getting recently has so much water in it it does not do a very good job of removing the silicon from the plates. vacuum motors are working good and running on high, our screen filters are clean Plate vacuum housing is clean, and our vacuum motor bags have been cleaned.

 

Hello Ron, are you using a different ink? If not, the only thing left would either be contaminated water or the air pressure. Try just cleaning your plates automatic and glance over at your air pressure while in the wash up, listen for any air leaks at the same time.

 

We have replaced the MOSS Rubber which helped but the real issue was our pressman was not putting enough ink on the press rollers on start up in the morning. The plates need a fair amount of ink on them to do a decent job of removing the silicon during the plate wash cycle.

 

Once I turn the press on , I duct about 100-120 revolutions . 100 if first job has light coverage, 120 if a lot of solids. vary depending on coverage and type of ink one uses.