Worries & Concerns
Worrisome Results
What are major tape-related concerns?
Demounting is a major trouble spot for 38 percent of the sample. Another 19 percent points to over-aggressive adhesives. Inventory, at 10 percent, is also watched carefully. Stepping outside the choices, printers respond largely with single words: “bubbles,” “trash,” “cost,” “registration.” Some made this more verbose observation: “Print quality is not as good as it is with sleeves.”
Problems, Problems
Why can tape be problematic?
Some 55 percent of printers indicate that insufficient adhesive is the most likely culprit. Forty-five percent list improper pressure adjustment as contributing to imperfections. Similarly, 39 percent cite the addition of graphic elements, like screens, tints, highlights and halftones.
An identical 21 percent credits both increased press speeds and a change in variety of plate—solvent, water wash, liquid—as a possible cause. Twenty percent believes new substrates and their unfamiliar properties are contributors and 17 percent thinks an increase in durometer plays some role in a less-than-ideal outcome. In a non-traditional twist of fate, just 9 percent blames the ink!
Turning to mentions of other potential issue initiators, printers mention “seams,” “long runs,” “mounting time” and more elaboratively, “Operators crushing it!”
Protocols & Practices
Protocols & Practices
What protocols are followed in mounting/demounting?
Seventy-one percent lives by surface inspection, 65 percent stands anal about trimming excessive tape and a matching 65 percent swear by storing plates in a closely controlled environment. Twenty-eight percent looks to apply primer, 22 percent seal plate edges and 19 percent elects to detach adhesives where necessary. The only other course of action drawing mention was “building up tape beyond solids.”