Kodak Sword Plate Ultra Grain Optional

[rhctp]

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I got a call from my vendor this morning informing me that Kodak now has given everyone the option to order the ultra grain plate or the regular grain (short, long, mixed). I know I have been running the Ultra Grain and it doesn't seem to do as well as the old mixed grain I used to use. Also when I compared the two under a microscope I could see that the Ultra's emulsion wasn't as "smooth" as the other. I am switching back.

[pmkprog]

In previous posts I have been discussing issues with these plates.

Kodak is switching us due to the quantity of problems we have had with the Ultra grain.

Next we we are getting the numbers from the presses to re-profile them.

[edgar]

We are turning back to old Sword Excel plates.

IMHO old plates has better definition than ultragrain plates. Also, we are having problems when exposing thinner plates because the emultion brightness. Our ctp turns crazy when exposing Ultragrain plates.

What's your ctp model?

[pmkprog]

Brisque and a Lotem II Quantum 800.

We're actually testing Fuji plates now. So far we've had a lot less variance since the switch and profiling for presses and proofs has gone much smoother.

In two weeks we'll know whether or not we'll make the switch.