Sweating rollers, Humidity?
This is a new one for me.
This morning I went in to print the fourth piece of a wedding package on the Pearl no. 11 and found the rubber rollers were sweaty (droplets of liquid on the back side of the rollers). I wiped down the rollers and attempted to ink the press. The ink just sat on the ink disk without moving. The most the rollers did was flatten the spots of ink. Since I clean my rollers with kerosene (and have done so for over 15 years) I then wiped them down with the type wash used by the offset pressman. It made no difference. I’ve been printing the other items for the wedding for about 1.5 months now, every couple of weeks, with the same ink, rollers, etc.
I’m in the Northeast, USA, and it’s been raining almost every afternoon for almost a month. The offset printing company I work for put in heat pumps last fall to replace the furnace and air conditioners we previously used and added major insulation. The heat pumps are set to dry the air and the humidity reads as 64% with a temperature of 74 degrees.
I did find a discussion that suggested for a different inking problem washing the rollers with soap and water which I will try tomorrow. I just wanted to see if anyone had an additional suggestion.
Thank you, Diane
try cleaning/wiping with some offset roller cleaning paste, then something like MEK to refresh the rubber, or even say white spirit with a little pumice powder to clean off residue etc, then dust with french chalk afterwards???
Experiment on a spare roller first…….
I wash my rollers every once in a while with an offset roller deglazer. Rollers and ink don’t like to be hot and humid or cold in the winter, It has been a wet June here in the northeast, my rollers and ink are doing all right, maybe your rollers are just old and its time to replace them, they will melt after a while and make a big mess.
Pumice powder jonathon?
if you dont know the composition of your rollers only apply MEK with a water wetted cloth . do not use it on treothene rollers wet or not .
The rollers that melt in age are not to be exposed to MEK nor any fierce strippers ,I have only ever used those once and the mess when they breakdown is heartbreaking to clean up .
Little Acorn, more than likely your rollers are composition.
thats what they do.
The offset pressman offered me Revitol, Detergent Roller Glaze Remover, which agrees with dickg, so if the soap and water doesn’t work I’ll try that. Didn’t have a chance to try anything this morning.
Oh, and the rollers are definitely rubber, old rubber, but rubber all the same.
Thank you
I used to use a deglazer, then a rubber rejuvenator, the last 10 or 12 years I have just used the deglazer, it really helps bring back the rubber, if the rollers are not rubber they could ruin them, I only use the glaze remover every 4 to 6 months, and I use my rollers every day.
Little Acorn, is the liquid the rollers are sweating sticky/
gooey?
James,
The liquid was more like water/condensation, but I didn’t want to call it water if that wasn’t what it was. It hasn’t happened again in the last two days.