Please select your problem from the list below:

dot gain

doubling

fanout (web growth)

gear streaks

ghosting

mottle

non-gear streaks

register

scumming

slurring

Printing Units Troubleshooting - Nongear Streaks

Definition: Lateral streaks are not to be confused with gear streaks. These
streaks do not coincide with the teeth of the gear that drives the plate or blanket
cylinder. They do however occur laterally from the gear to operator side of the
cylinder.

Problem: Ink forms are set too heavy.

Solution: When ink forms are set too heavy, they will often hit the gap too hard.
This will cause a bounce and hence a slightly noticeable line across the printed
image. Lighten the forms to the manufacturers specifications.

Problem: Bad bearings in form rollers.

Solution: Check each form roller bearing thoroughly. A bearing that is starting

to wear will cause skips across the plate.

Problem: Main cylinder bearings.

Solution: Much like the roller bearings, the worn cylinder bearings will cause the
same problem. Inspect and replace as necessary.

Problem: Rollers are too hard.

Solution: Change rollers to something softer according to the manufacturers
specs. Generally, form rollers, and particularly the water form, are softer than the
others. When they lose their hardness, plate wear and bounce will occur. Use a
durometer to check.

Problem: Blanket is loose or smashed.

Solution: Lines across the blanket can actually be smashes. Additionally, the
blanket should be torqued tight enough to not roll up on the cylinder. It must be
tight enough to not move on the cylinder, but not so tight as to lose blanket
height.

Printing Units Troubleshooting - Mottle

Definition: Mottle is caused by paper that is either linting too much onto the
blanket, or a density that is too weak, causing the solids to look weak.

Problem: Blankets need washing.

Solution: Sometimes an automatic blanket washing system does not do
enough. Shutting down and scrubbing the blanket with water is sometimes
necessary to remove all the lint buildup on the blanket. This buildup causes
solids too look like it has flakes in it.

Problem: Poor blanket to blanket or plate to

blanket pressure.
Solution: Poor transfer can cause piling buildup which can effect how the solids
looks. Proper pressure can help prevent paper from building up on the blanket.
Check blanket heights, plate heights and bearer pressures.

Problem: Insufficient water flow.

Solution: Running the absolute minimum water is a purists ideal goal of ink and
water balance. However reality dictates that a little more water is necessary to
prevent piling (from paper or ink) from building up on the blanket.

Problem: You have crappy paper.

Solution: Spend and extra few dollars and buy a decent paper. It will pay
dividends in other ways that will save you downtime and waste.

Problem: Poor ink density.

Solution: Increase your density. This isn't as much of a solution as it is a band
aid.

Printing Units Troubleshooting - Doubling

Definition: Doubling, not to be confused with slurring, is caused by improper
transfer of image from the blanket to the paper. After the plate transfers ink to
the blanket, it should then ideally all transfer to the paper. If it does not, then the
blanket revolves around to pick up the same dot, but on a slightly different
position on the blanket. The blanket then transfers a "double image" to the
paper.

Problem: Too much packing under the blanket.

Solution: Check that you are the proper height over bearer on your blanket.
Essentially what is happening is that the blanket cylinder is travelling slightly
faster than the plate. A slight sliding action occurs and produces a double image.
Reduce the packing if necessary.

Problem: Improper bearer pressure.

Solution: Follow the procedure for checking and setting your bearer pressure
properly.

Problem: Worn gears or bearings.

Solution: If your press is old, you need to consider this possibility. Play in the
gears can cause slight "bumps" while running. Additionally, the main cylinder

bearings that are wearing will cause slight hesitations or even pressure variations
between the cylinders. Have a mechanic thoroughly check these parts.

Scumming Causes and Solutions

When it comes to offset print scumming, I will assume you know enough about
ink and water balance to know how to make it go away. I would like to go into
some of the deeper reasons as to why scumming can happen and what
remedies can solve this plague. First of all, lets define scumming.

Definition
In offset printing, when the non-image areas of a plate become receptive to ink,
thats scumming. Too much ink or not enough water is not a definition. Those
are causes. Since the causes are so many, that definition is broad enough to
encompass most reasons.

Causes of Scumming
Lets now look at a few causes of scumming beyond the simple ink and water
balance solution.

Plate is sensitized by piling.

Dirty metering or water pan roller.

Poor plate development.

Poor ink strength.

Bad roller settings.

Scumming Solutions
There are several different areas that we can look at from this point. Lets
examine each consumable one at a time.
1. The press itself. Start here. Check all the roller settings and get them set
them exactly to the press manufacturers specs. Take your time and check the
settings when the roller are engaged. There is a difference.
2. The plate. We have found that sometimes our plates are too sensitive. It
turned out once that gum wasnt properly being applied by our plate room
department. Whatever the case, a very narrow window can be created if plates
are not processed properly. If the press is down for any significant time, gum
your plates. We have found that plates made by computer-to-plate can oxidize
fast and must be gummed quickly.
3. Chemistry. Start with your fountain solution. Double check that you are
mixing it according to the manufacturers specifications. Consult with your
supplier that your paper is made compatible with your paper and plate. Poor
chemistry can cause piling which leads to the next area.
4. Piling. The buildup of piling can be abrasive enough to the plate that is will
cause it to desensitize and scum. There are so many causes of piling that are
difficult to troubleshoot that we cannot discuss them all here, but in our
experience, paper is the place to start. Paper that is too abrasive will desensitize
the plate quickly. A higher grade of paper may help.
5. Ink. In our experience ink is responsible for 3% of the cost but 97% of the
quality. Good offset printing ink is worth its weight in gold. A liberal ink and water
balance window is critical to prevent scumming. Work closely with your ink
supplier and discuss values like ink and water pickup rate. Ink manufacturers
take shortcuts too. Call them on it!

Printing Units Troubleshooting - Slurring

Definition: Slurring takes place when slippage during the image transfer
process.

Problem: Poor tension control.

Description: If the printing units have too much control of the nip, it may cause
tension variations from unit to unit.
Solution: Increase or decrease the tension at your infeed unit until it goes away.
Follow the basic tension principles for web offset printing.

Problem: Poor blanket tension.

Typical slur patch

Description: The blanket is loose and not secured to the printing cylinder.
Solution: Torque the blanket to spec. To not over tighten as this will cause
other problems. It should only be tight enough to prevent slippage and preserve
it's properties.

Problem: Form oscillation.

Description: Form rollers that are designed to help with ghosting, will move
from side to side. This is good only to the extent that it will prevent ghosting.
Solution: Many times the oscillation can be turned off by securing the ends of
the roller.

Problem: Worn gears or bearings.

Description. Bearings or gears that are starting to wear will cause slight
hesitations in the printing unit or even gear streaks.
Solution: Check the following - cylinder bearings, gears and even form roller
bearings. Replace any that are worn or simply heating up during the run.

How To Minimize Ghosting

Ghosting is an age old problem of offset printing. In our printing plant, some
presses have more of a problem with it than others. This is due in large part to
press design. I would like to share a few pointers that help us to minimize this
problem.

Definition
First, lets define ghosting. When some areas of the plate that draw large
amounts of ink are directly beside areas that require minimal amounts,
mechanical ghosting occurs. This same problem can also occur if the plate
starves part of an form roller of ink and then upon the next revolution transfers
that low ink film thickness to the next revolution. Either way, ink film thickness is
is left insufficient to properly ink another image on the plate.

Causes
There are several factors that can cause ghosting. Here are just a few:

Short ink train.

Inconsistent ink feed.

Insufficient ink density.

No form oscillation.

Poor product design.

Bad roller settings.

Poor ink and water balance.

Solutions
Of course, just knowing the causes does not solve the problem. And in most
cases, you cannot change the length of the ink train or the ink feed design. So
lets consider some steps you can take to make the best of the offset printing job
that youve been given.

1. Run sufficient density. It may seem simple, but often running the minimum
amount of black will not help you in this situation. Give it a little more ink and see
if it helps.
2. Use oscillating rollers. Perhaps your press will allow you to put these in.
Likely not. However if you do have oscillating rollers, try changing the latitude
that they are allowed to move. Sometimes increasing or decreasing it can make
a difference.
3. Change the product design. This doesnt necessarily have to be done by
the customer. Perhaps the way you are folding the job or collating it can be
changed. At any rate, both the designer and the customer should know what
effect their layout has in offset printing.
4. Check your roller settings. I have often found that sometimes an ink form
roller isnt even touching in the area with ghosting. Dont eliminate this
possibility, it happens.
5. Run minimal water. So many problems result from poor ink and water
balance ghosting is just one of them. The best result will come with the
minimal amount of water. It may not be your comfort zone, but in this case it is
necessary.
6. Put the product on a different press. Perhaps you are running the job on a
press with a ductor roller for inking. Such an intermittent system can contribute
to ghosting. A continuous feed inking system may be more appropriate. Or
another press may have a longer ink train or oscillating rollers. This option of
course should be a last resort.
Really though, this problem should rarely come to the press because youve
already educated your design team and customer about it, right? With good
planning, these sorts of problems can be kept to a minimum. After all, doesnt a
pressman have enough variables to deal with?

How To Troubleshoot Hickeys On Your Press

Left: Hickey on plate. Right: Hickey on blanket

Hickeys are a fact of life in offset printing. That much I've made peace with.
However left uncontrolled, they cause us massive amounts of waste. That's why
we are constantly trying to troubleshoot and control the sources of offset printing
hickeys. Here are a few sources of hickeys and some methods to solve this
problem. First of all though, let's define a hickey so that we know we're on the
same page.

Hickeys - What Are They?

A hickey is any particle that sticks to the blanket or plate that transfers an
imperfection to the printed page. Usually they are a dot with a ring around it.
Sometimes they are just a dot of missing color. In any case, there is missing
image. Whether it is around the dot or the dot itself that has not image. I'm sure
that could only make sense to a pressman.

Sources Of Hickeys
In my years in printing on sheet fed, heatset and coldset web presses, most of
the time a hickey will come from the following sources:

Paper

Ink

Dust in the environment

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that these three account for almost all
offset printing hickeys. It is always possible that they may be coming from a
sleeve in your dampening system or from the rollers themselves breaking down,
but these are rarities in our press room. Nine times out of ten we can isolate one
of these three sources.

Finding the Source

Most of the time I have found that that you can tell the source just by looking at
the hickey. Often a hickey that comes from the ink will be well defined. By that I
mean that the image in the doughnut shaped ring has clearly defined edges. In
contrast, a hickey from paper fiber will have fuzzy edges and even bits of fiber
extending out from it. Examine it closely, it may be that simple.
If it is not that evident, we have performed the following steps to figure it out.
Here they are:
1. Examine the blanket. If there is much white dust on it, likely your paper
bond is weak.
2. Shut down the press and apply a piece of tape to the hickey.
3. Draw it off the plate and examine it under a powerful magnifier.
4. If you still cannot identify it then it could be connected with how the paper
was made. Send a sample to your paper and ink supplier for
identification.
That is our last resort of course. Most of the time step four is not required.

What Causes Hickeys?

Lastly, let's talk about the properties of ink and paper that cause hickeys. With
ink, there are numerous properties that can cause hickeys. Poor grind or dried
ink skin in the fountain are just a couple. For us lately, it has been our high ink
tack. We've been trying to reduce our dot gain by manipulating the viscosity of
our ink. The resultant higher tack has caused us more hickeys as the ink draws
fibers off the paper. Hopefully your problem isn't that complicated.

Dust
I couldn't write something about controlling hickeys without talking about dust. If
you do not control dust in your press room environment, this cancer will slowly
grow until it is out of control. Stay on top of it! Housekeeping in offset printing is
critical part of preventative maintenance.

Wiping Hickeys
Lastly, how do you get rid of a hickey. Officially, I do not encourage wiping them
while the press is running. With a sheet fed press, it is easier since the start ups
and shutdowns are easier. On a high speed web press where much is wasted,
this decision is a little more difficult. Hickeys can come and go so we have a
standard number of copies that we wait to see if it goes away. If it is still there we

take care of it. If it is on someones face we take care of it right away. You must
establish your own standard in this regard.