Quickmaster Press Capabilities

Hey,
Can a Quickmaster Press produce 4 color process work? Is there a certain way to output plates for it? Would paper plates from a DPM 2000s suffice? Our pressman says that this is impossible.
Thanks...

[LoganBlade]

Becuase it is Heidelberg and if the plates don't stretch and your not going to be supper fussy. It can be done. Stability of plate is teh biggest issue. If pressmn can register same sheet thru press you can do it. You would out put plates with coorect screen angels and run the black and cyan then the magenta and the yellow.


everything can be done if operator is up for a solid try but if not it won't happen.

good luck

trying is the only way to find out for sure the limitaions of this way

[steveagfa]

Makib:

Is this a 4-color press?
Then you should be fine.

But, if you are trying to do it in two
passes on a two-color press,
then it will be difficult.

Polyester tends to relax in the
clamps (some call this stretch).
So, as long as you are running
all 4-colors at the same time, you'll
have a better chance, as they all
relax at the same rate.

However, if you do two passes of 2-colors,
then the "last out, first in" sequence of the
first set of sheets will run counter to the
rate of relaxation of the next set of plates.

I hope this helps.

Thanks guys for your responses. I was aware of the scretch in paper/poly. With metal, it should be fine though right?
Also, I was reading about UCR (Under Color Removal). Do you need to output plates with UCR?

[prepress_goddess]

I leave UCR off - tend to get good results 98% of the time. only will trouble you with color critical work.

[maxpower]

Ive seen a couple of print shops using the new dpx poly systems for colour work, they work excellent, good for about 5000 sheets, up till then they are really close to aluminum plates, after that you can see a bit of stretching.

use UCR if you are sending RGB images to your RIP, it puts some black in the
images, easier to adjust just the black on the press than CMY.

either way, the quickmaster is a horrible press, dont expect too much.

Why are QuickMasters such horrible presses?
I noticed that they seem to be very finicky machines, everything has to be set just right (judging by what it takes for our pressman to get it going, but he is used to running older, non computerized Presses)

[JaimeZ]

In the best of circumstances a four color press is best even if its a portrait Ryobi 3304 type press for running CMYK--metal or poly.

Next a two tower two color press (2 separate blankets) like the GTO type landscape (14x20) press or a portrait Ryobi 3302 type press (13x17.24) work best. These presses have good register systems for second pass register using metal plates and will give you very good results for most jobs with a lot of practice. I don't remember what sequence we used to use and I thank God we don't have to because we have a five color GTO.

Now the Heidelberg Quickmaster is a great press for what it was designed to do and CMYK printing is not one of them; this press is the Mercedes Benz of the duplicator type presses--a two head common blanket reminiscent of ABDick 360 with a T-head type press.

A good pressman will give you pleasing color from the Quickmaster resulting in a dull slightly fuzzy look. This is because two colors are inking to the same blanket at the same time before transferring to the sheet and a greater amount of plugging up of the inks is occurring. In a two tower or multi tower press, each tower has its own blanket and each ink is transfered direct to the sheet one at a time resulting in a crisper cleaner image with much less plugging up of the inks.

Hope this helps. 8)

Thanks, that helps a great deal. One more question about the quickmaster.
How accurate do paper plates (Made by a DPM2000s) have to be in relation to the positioning of the image and also length.
Our pressman tells us that with the QuickMaster Press, the plates have to be absolutely perfect.
So my question is what kind of adjustments does the QM have for moving image/plate.

[directtowhat]

I have seen the AB dick DPM 2M work great with four color process on true twos and of course 4 color machines. I have seen nice demos from heidelberg on th the quickmaster holding nice screens and dense solid down the whole sheet. But I never saw a 4 color job pulled off one. I would say the common blanket is the biggest factor. you could try running it single color if it registers but i doubt it since it is direct feed. But it is a heidelberg you never can count it out.
Small process jobs are dirt cheap these days you dont need to run it on your own. the gang run and DI shops turn out good product for the money.
As far as movement for positioning on press A digital platemaker with impositioning software set up for that machine is the best. And would be a prime setup for a quick printer.
If your going to use an old silvermaster camera shooting from hard copy and or laser plate and the occasional metal plates go with a workhorse AB Dick 9900 series or Ryobi 28/3200. Nothing worse than running out of adjustments, AB dick have loads of room and a fraction of the price.

Dont be fooled thinking you will run perfect 2 color registration on a t-head abdick the cylinders are made in two seperate factories and to pack them to print the same leagth is in my opinion close to impossible.
I own 3 and 1 of them luckily have the same circumfrence and i run tight down a whole 11x17.
Heidelberg is a different story those should register 2 colors niceley
both heads are created equal and it is built like a real press.
hope this helps