Ok...so some guy just rang me up to offer me a chat and most probably a job in printing, thing is, it will be in a digital press. I've not got a clue what to expect, as i am used to running a heidelberg quickmaster which is conventional printing (im not really sure of the differences). Does anyone have any clue about the differences? Any info would be appreciated, maybe some of you are printers yourself, i'm not too sure. I hope this isn't considered spam. I just was wondering if there were any printers on the forums.
Digital Printing.
- Thread starter Mobius 1
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JohnnyG said:I was a printer for 20yrs, ran 5 colour Speedmasters & GTO's etc. don't miss a thing
Digital printing is quite similar to Litho in some ways but not in others if that makes sense. The machines are of a similar build ie. ink rollers & ducts, register systems & paper feeding etc. but there's no plates as such. The image is sent digitally from a geek on a Mac to a sort of plastic roll on the plate cylinder & etched on there automatically then when that job is run the roll just forwards to the next 'plate' for the next job, there's no fount system either so it's waterless (different inks) & jobs dry much quicker.
That's the basics of it but if you can run Litho, Digital is a doddle
Thanks for the infomation, and thank god for digital being fountless, that caused me nothing but troubles on my last machine. And cool, so theres no need for metal plates? Hated making those and cleaning the bath, developer is dangerous stuff. I've only ever been on a two colour QM. I've had a blast on a 6 colour roland before, but it wasnt in the best of conditions. Lol.
I'm not really sure. The developer is the stuff that takes the green stuff off the metal fuji plates to reveal the lasered image right? That stuff burns. I considered it dangerous 
lol. The only thing i hated about a two colour quickmaster is the fact i had to wash up for every job for a new colour/s. I lost my old job due to liquidation and the company going bankrupt. The machines weren't serviced. 
Got a new chance now though. Man i miss the smell (of the inks and machinery). It sound wierd, but its something you'd never tend to forget.
lol. The only thing i hated about a two colour quickmaster is the fact i had to wash up for every job for a new colour/s. I lost my old job due to liquidation and the company going bankrupt. The machines weren't serviced. Got a new chance now though. Man i miss the smell (of the inks and machinery). It sound wierd, but its something you'd never tend to forget.JohnnyG said:Good luck with it mate
Thanks mate, im really gonna try my hardest and enjoy this job as much as possible! I can tell i will do. As for litho..yup.. it is dying out, it takes so long to get a job up and running, well i thought it did anyway, anything up to an hour to get a job spot on, with colour and everything. Thats including a solid. Which are difficult to get just right.
JohnnyG said:An hour makeready is ok if you're running a few hundred k, but it's extremely uneconomical for short runs, with Digital you can make ready in minutes & re-prints are even better as the data will be saved from the last run & you just load it
It took me about half hour to wash up two colours and get one new colour ready for a 500 SRA3 sheet run of say...letterheads. I did have a lot of waste though... They told me just to throw the ink away once i'd used it. Lol. Bad eh? The most sheets ive ever run in one go was 50,000 SRA3. Took me two days!
Thanks Johny69
Universal said:
SRA3 is A3 with bleed for movement on the page and tickmarks. You can get that done anywhere (the printing). If the right amount of money is shown i guess. Letterheads and bus cards are done on a small two colour. No matter how many are required you can get that done easily. The posters can be done on a four colour GTO usually. as long as you pay the price you can get anything done really.