agfa anapurna cyan not curing

[macnassgeno]

does anybodu know why the cyan ink is not curing on coroplast?
i have brand new bulbs and my curing is set to 10 on the lamp which is the highest setting

 

[VISCOM]

Send a pic please. Are you using G1 inks???

 

[Gino]

Blue is the toughest for drying when the lamps are not performing correctly. We had the same problem with ours some time ago and as soon as we changed out the lamps..... presto, our problem was gone. We now use that almost more than the hours meter to keep us abreast of when we need to change out the lamps.

 

[klmiller611]

Interestingly enough, I was having problems with curing on my Anapurna as well beginning a year ago last spring. Replaced the bulbs, virtually no change. I had previously been able to run the lamps at half power on everything except coro. Now they have to run on high for everything.

Since my ink only gets replaced every six months or so, I think it may have been a bad batch of ink as well. The lamps only made a minor difference in the curing issue. Changing them out to high power helped, but things are still not perfect. Since I am now on a new batch of ink, that seems to have helped as well. It could have been something with the bulbs as well, but they were brand new.

Ken Miller

 

[jmcnicoll]

Are you buying Agfa bulbs or a third party? We tried CureUV.com bulbs in our Anapurna but had nothing but problems with them. They worked for less than have the hours that Agfas bulbs do.

jim

 

[Gino]

We go through a liter of each color on an average of about every 3 or 4 weeks or so. We've slowed down a bit, so not as much at the moment. I thought it was the ink, but not anymore. They can't be making that much bad ink..... and besides, it's always the blue [cyan] and I was told that color is the hardest one to dry and cure. The lamps cure it instantly.

 

[klmiller611]

First these were second party bulbs. This was our second set from the same vendor, the first worked without issue, lasted as long or longer than the factory bulbs.

We use a liter of ink about every 6-8 months, depending on what I have to print, so you can see that it is not high volume turnover. And, since we have to buy 2 liters at a time, it is not fresh shelf stock. When Advantage carried the ink, before Agfa bought out Pitman, we could buy a liter at a time, and I usually did not keep it on the shelf, knowing the track record of how long one would last, I'd usually order a liter about a month before I needed it.

At least that was until I had a job of printing 48x96 panels with brick wall on them, that burned through a liter of magenta in about 4 days!

Ken

 

[particleman]

When we had our Agfa on G1 ink that lamps were the first suspect when cyan would not cure. We ran into it all the time since the machine was used 12-18 hours a day.

 

[macnassgeno]

cyan not curing with anapurna M1600

I've tried a bunch of different settings and its still wont cure.
on the heavy covered areas its fine but the areas where only a little bit of cyan is printed (like cloud pictures) the ink just keeps smearing even days after its printed

 

[particleman]

I would speak with Agfa about this. Try to find a knowledgeable tech. I'll be honest 6 years ago when we had the M4F this was one of the contributing factors to getting rid of it. We printed a significant amount of corrugated and ran into this quite a bit.

 

[ChrisN]

I've never had cyan completely fail to cure, but I know it is the most sensitive of all the inks. Did you try cleaning the glass that the lamps shine through? Ink overspray could get on to it and diminish your cure power.

 

[klmiller611]

I'd agree with Particleman, try to find someone with AGFA tech who is knowledgeable. We had adhesion problems with the Mv on coro, particularly with heavy coverage. But that was dramatically helped by using Enteplast coro, fresh stock, and lamps on high with a fan to cool the coro from the lamps.

I think if you complain to Agfa, they should get you some help.

When I first set up and do a jet test on coro, none of that is cured well and smears. However, after the lamps are warmed up and on high power, it does not seem to be an issue. I always like to leave my stuff sitting for a day if I can before cutting.

Keep us posted.

Ken