On Dec 22, 0:03, Neil Cherry wrote:
> Mike Ford wrote:
> >
> > Any opinions on "rubber rejuvinent"? I want to give all my printers a
once
> > over during the holidays, and I've heard this stuff is just the ticket
for
> > lazy pickup rollers etc. Web searchs have shown a couple different
aerosol
> > products, but I think it also comes in bottles. Tomorrow I do some
local
> > hunting at a couple big electronics parts stores. Anybody have
experience,
> > or preferences?
>
> If you find something that works let me know my 550C has the same
problem.
In the printing industry, Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) is used to deep-clean
ink rollers and "blankets" on offset litho machines. It's a powerful ink
solvent, and also causes rubber to swell very slightly, so it removes the
glaze you sometimes get, and lifts the dents you get in the blanket as a
result of a paper smash[1]. MEK works well on pickup rollers, and it
doesn't harm the ozone layer. However, like many solvents, it does
dissolve some common plastics (polystyrene, ABS, PVC, etc) and paint; it
also leaches the oils and fats from your skin, so don't wash in it :-) Not
for too long, anyway. It's also flammable. However, it's much safer than
benzene, xylol, etc. It's a relative of acetone (nail varnish remover) and
you can get it from print suppliers (they may call it something like
blanket rejuvenator, and charge extra), lab suppliers, etc. Put some on a
cloth and wipe the roller with it. I've used it on lots of printer
rollers, and the carriages of daisywheel and dotmatrix printers.
You don't really want to use anything that is a good solvent for rubber or
rubber cement as that will end up distorting the roller or making it gummy
and ultimately leave you worse off.
[1] In an offset litho press, the image is transferred from an image
"plate" -- a very thin sheet of metal or plastic wrapped round a large drum
-- to a rubber "blanket", also wrapped round a large drum. From there, the
image is transferred to the paper. If a sheet of paper gets crumpled in
the press, it makes dents in the blanket, which then fails to pick up ink
from the plate in the low spots. This is called a "paper smash" or a
"blanket smash".
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Received on Fri Dec 22 2000 - 02:30:13 GMT