Consumables

Fountain solution

Friday 12. November 2010 - The list of printing problems that can be caused by an inferior fountain solution is long. Piling on the blanket, scumming, smearing, poor drying, over-emulsification, plate corrosion, plates running blind, and so on and so forth. Many undesirable effects originate from an insufficiently tested fountain solution. With a printcom-certified fountain solution, you reliably guard against all problem sources with long and short runs.

printcom fountain solutions have been used successfully all over the world for many years in thousands of presses. The major advantage over customary fountain solutions is printing process compliancy and material compatibility. Normal fountain solution tests are only concerned with corrosion protection – but not with long-term interaction with a specific type of press.
The printcom fountain solution testing process concentrates on:

Corrosion protection
Clean running behavior
Contamination resistance
Ascertaining the fountain solution latitude (working window smearing borderline – water marks)
Behavior with special applications (e.g. cold foiling)
Interaction with special inks (e.g. metallic inks, UV inks, inks with high layer thicknesses)
Ink build-up on the dampening rollers
Water conductivity
Only the best fountain solutions receive the printcom Seal of Quality. Here is an overview of our testing process.