Printer's Notebook
Courtesy of Flint Group's Printers Resource Team

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Printer's Notebook

 

10 Things that Destroy Print Quality
#1 - Piling

Hr Printer's Tools

There are a number of things that can compromise the quality of a print run. We have selected 10 of them to review. This email is the first in a series that reviews the problems and what printers typically do to correct them.

Problem #1 (Piling)
Piling occurs when ink builds up on the blanket until it eventually lifts off a portion of the image or pulls the fibers or coating from the sheet. A number of things can cause piling: defective paper coating, wrong ink consistency, an inadequate film of fountain solution, improper fountain solution mix, too much impression cylinder squeeze or a blanket wash that leaves the blanket sticky.

How do printers fix a piling problem? They will: 1.lower the tack or set rate of the ink, 2.increase fountain solution to the plate. If these adjustments don’t work, they will replace the blanket with a new one, or try a different run of paper.

Our Varn brand of Non-Piling Additive is formulated to help printers reduce or eliminate the piling problem.

To learn more about piling and other print quality problems, contact your Flint Group Account Manager.