Pressroom climate problems: causes and fixes

5 Pressroom climate problems in offset printing and finishing: symptoms, probable causes, step-by-step fixes and prevention.

Pressroom climate · TPG-212

Room too dry (RH < 40%)

Static, tight-edged paper, variable registration, airborne dust

High severity

Pressroom climate · TPG-213

Room too humid (RH > 65%)

Wavy edges, slow ink drying, set-off, corrosion

High severity

Pressroom climate · TPG-214

Abrupt climate changes between zones or shifts

Jobs running fine that 'fall apart' as the day changes; registration coming and going

Medium severity

Pressroom climate · TPG-215

High room temperature (> 26-28 °C)

Runnier ink (gain, misting), IPA evaporating, hot rollers

Medium severity

Pressroom climate · TPG-216

Ambient dust in the room

Recurrent hickeys, specks in coating, unstable overall quality

Medium severity

Other categories

Binding (hotmelt/PUR) (8)Blankets (7)Die-cutting/Cracking (12)Feeder/Delivery (9)Folder-gluer (18)Folding (12)Fountain solution (10)Gathering/Stitching/Gluing (10)Grippers/Sheet travel (8)Guillotine/Cutting (6)High rulings/Stochastic (12)Hot foil (7)Ink (material) (12)Inking calibration (6)Lamination (5)Metallized (9)Offset – Ink/Water (14)Offset – Mechanical/Paper (12)Paper/Board (10)Plates (CTP) (7)Polyboard/Corona (14)Prepress (10)Rollers (7)Stripping (8)Substrates GC/Bond/Coated (11)Three-knife trimmer (8)UV coating (7)Water-based coating (8)Wire/Spiral binding (7)