- Monitor incoming tap and even reverse-osmosis water daily (at minimum,measure the conductivity) as well as the actual running dampening solution.Also, store water samples on a regular basis (monthly, at minimum) and analyzefor additional chemistry (chloride content, etc.). If your temperatures are notcontrolled, you should also monitor dampening-system temperatures. This simpledatabase alone could prove invaluable when a problem arises.
- Q/C incoming materials as much as possible. For minimal expense, a simplein-house lab can help prevent and solve problems as well as improve quality andlower waste. Operated in conjunction with your vendors and informed, independentlabs, a basic in-house lab that tests the most basic interactions between ink(especially recycled), fountain solution and paper requires little equipment andcan be run without additional employees.
- Job to job, record key comments from press crews regarding ink/watersettings, image densities, cold and warm start-up waste, plate conditionsthrough the run, blanket piling, etc. These simple data can be invaluable in thefuture when running the same job or competing for a similar one.
- Work aggressively to improve your chemistry balances through conservative,controlled testing using your growing database to help measure incrementalimprovements. Relatively small changes in chemistry can make huge improvementsin quality and waste reduction.
- Whenever possible, track all data using simple forms to promote consistencyand ownership in your pressrooms.
Quality Insurance
by Ted Fournier
To compete effectively in our quality- and cost-conscious world, thenewspaper industry must continuously improve its processes. We must viewproduction holistically, paying attention to the many interactions thatconstantly take place. Only by minimizing the weak links in the overall processcan we hope to attract advertising dollars consistently.
One key to preventing weak links in the pressroom is to collect criticaldata--job to job, day to day, and year to year. Our huge investments in pressand pre-press equipment will prove useless if we struggle in the pressroom.Improper water settings (resulting in excessive dot gain, poor density and rubcharacteristics), scumming, plate wear, piling, and high start-up waste willoutweigh our improvements in machinery.
Consistent data collection often can be our best weapon in both solving andavoiding many problems, because it is easier to improve our efficiency in thefuture if we have reference points from the past. All too often, we havevirtually no starting point from which to begin to correct a problem.Ultimately, data collection will help us develop necessary standards for thepressroom.
Although offset lithography is completely dependent on chemistry, datarelating to chemical interactions in the pressroom are often ignored. Perhapsbecause chemistry is invisible to the naked eye, we tend to avoid it as thoughit were black magic. The end result of such complacency, however, is certainlyvisible--just ask the advertiser!
Listed below are the major chemistry-related variables that should betracked on a regular basis. Coupled with quality training from top to bottom,such preventive insurance can pay huge dividends in quality and waste reduction.
All of these improvements require little money and are certainly lessexpensive than the problems they will certainly prevent.
Ted Fournier is national newspaper manager for Anchor, a division ofInternational Paper's Imaging Products Division. Phone is 800-526-7005, ext.531; fax, (904) 269-8932.