Spots developing on plates QM46

[mmpmedford.com]

Arc- No the plates look fine. We've used the same plates on both presses, and changed the platemaker since this problem started. Also, don't know if I've noted this yet, but the operator on this press had the same problem on the same model at the last place he worked. We never had it until he showed up. That, along with everything else, indicates to me that it's operator related. The DPM went from a 2508 to a 400 Pro a couple months ago. Problem didn't change when we had the new one installed.

 

[mr.mark]

Can you move the gto operator over to the qm for a day or so ?

 

[Swifty2]

...you need to vaccinate the pressman for spotted measles..he has infected your shop LOL sorry,I am out of ideas for you

 

[mmpmedford.com]

We tried moving the GTO operator over for a couple days. He saw the same problem, but was able to mitigate it more than the main operator had. One of the things I was fighting at the beginning was the QM operator's stubbornness... He seems to be a bit more willing to change now though. As I said earlier, the problem has gotten better. But still trying things to get it to go away completely. Still need to look at some of the suggestions here, haven't been able to keep up with everything and run prepress at the same time...

 

[Ken Johnston]

We have been having an issue where our plates come out fine, but develop spots as soon as we start running them. We currently run a DPM Pro 400 plate maker, which we got about 3 weeks ago, but we've had this problem for about 3 years (previous plate maker was a dpm 2508). We run 8mil MegaPro polyester plates. Our other press is a GTO, which uses the same plate material and imager, but doesn't have the same problem. We have been in contact with Presstek for over a year about the issue, with no solution. If we remake the plates, they usually work fine...

Hello mmpmedford.com, I was excited to find this forum because I am having the same 'SPOTS on PLATES' problem! ~ I was disappointed when I read to the end, - because is seems that there wasn't a definitive resolution before the thread ended in 2015. ??? Did you or anyone you know of find the source of the problem/ a solution?

 

[FFR428]

Thought I'd revisit this topic. My old posts are some 4 years old. I still run the same presses, plate machine and poly plates. No spots any more!! I cover the roller cages with clean rags after washup. Camera is cleaned every 4-5 weeks. It took some time as the shop atmosphere is quite nasty. But I no longer get any spots. Nothing has changed except things are kept clean. Even if you have a neat and tidy shop crap still floats in the atmosphere. Heat, AC units etc....... can contribute. This is the only shop I have encountered spots on poly plates. Presses are washed with VWM wash and water. Some Easy Street roller cleaner for color change. That's it. 1 machine has squeegees and the other washup sheets. I can honestly say in my case it was a dirty press environment. Keeping the rollers covered when not in use and good washups as stopped the spot in my case.