March 17, 2014
January 20, 2014
RBP makes international headlines again:
Renowned journalist, Sashi Nair, publishes an insightful story in the January issue of RIND Survey.
January 10, 2014
Cover Feature Story: DECEMBER 2013
The Press Institute of India published a feature story about RBP Chemical Technology and its strategic license agreement with Kapoor Imaging in its December issue of RIND Survey.
December 3, 2013
Is there more to the average plate cleaner than meets the eye? Is there one plate cleaner that can act as a quick fix and solve press and plate cleaning needs? Why don’t plate cleaners work the same all the time? These are some of the questions that RBP technical service reps hear regularly. The following article will try to address them and help take the mystery out of choosing the proper plate cleaner for the job.
November 20, 2013
“Customer satisfaction is a flawed idea,” says Wayne Renken, CEO of SensArray Corp., in an issue of Electronic Business News. How can that be? Renken says that by focusing on “doing things right”, by improving the status quo, we may be blind to a novel and potentially more effective approach. To be truly valuable suppliers we should broaden our goal from customer satisfaction to a far more powerful concept — customer success.
November 13, 2013
On November 15 1990 President George Bush signed the Clean Air Act into law, legally restricting the output of selected air pollutants by cities and industry. The Act addresses multiple sources and types of air pollution, but for the purposes of this discussion, we will deal with the “VOC” [volatile organic compound] component of “ground level ozone”, resulting from the material choices and methods used in Printed Board fabrication. “Ground-level ozone (O3) is the major component of smog. Ozone is not emitted directly into the air, but is formed through complex chemical reactions between precursor emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the presence of sunlight.”
A simplified schematic of the reaction follows:
October 29, 2013
As anyone in the newspaper business knows, printing good quality color is tough. Poor ink density, background toning and a washed out appearance are all common problems. However, advertisers and consumers alike continue to demand more and more color, challenging newspapers to improve their quality while still containing costs.
October 16, 2013
NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT:
10/16/2013–RBP Chemical Technology, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, announced today an agreement with Kapoor Imaging Pvt Ltd to license the blending and distribution of its pressroom chemistries line in India. After a presence in India for more than six years, RBP recognized the need to partner with a locally-respected supplier to support its efforts in growing its business in the region and globally.
September 30, 2013
August 15, 2013
As summer warms up so does the pressroom – all too often pressmen experience an increase in growth and keeping the press/equipment clean can become more difficult. Fountain solutions contain biocides to control growth, but at times they are just not enough to keep the press at peak performance. Controlling biological growth and keeping the press mix clean can be accomplished by using UV light sources, ultrasonic methods, oxidizers such as bleach or peroxides, temperature, and biocides.
August 13, 2013
In Booth #3044 during PRINT13, RBP will introduce Unitrol® 2500 fountain solution, updated to run on newer, high-speed sheetfed presses.
Sheetfed, commercial and packaging printers running newer high-speed presses are demanding updated fountain solutions to replace alcohol or alcohol replacers. RBP Chemical Technology, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis., (www.rbpchemical.com) is responding to this need with the launch of its new Unitrol® 2500, a one-step sheetfed fountain concentrate during PRINT13, September 8 – 12, 2013, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL. RBP, a nearly 60-year-old veteran developer, manufacturer and distributor of high performance chemicals and consumable supplies, has created the one-step fountain concentrate to run on all types of sheetfed presses.
July 30, 2013
As a supplier of HAL fluxes to the circuit board industry, RBP Chemical Technology® researchers were very aware of the drawbacks of conventional, halide-based products. High corrosivity, frequent equipment maintenance, time-consuming solder skimming, deficiencies in solder coverage, dull solder and environmental issues all led our product development team to find a better, more reliable product for the HAL process.
July 15, 2013
The shop is swamped and orders are pouring in. There just isn’t any time to clean the equipment or scrub a tank — right? WRONG — a critical mistake made by some PCB manufacturers is to wait until a process is out of control rather than perform regular preventive maintenance (PM) procedures throughout their operations.
June 30, 2013
More and more board shops are interested in running the tin stripper on a feed and bleed system. This method gives more consistent performance and reduces the downtime for dumping and changing the solution. The system can be controlled either by specific gravity or panel count as illustrated in the charts below.
May 30, 2013
Imaging fine lines is easy; developing fine spaces is hard.
With the standard circuit resolution quickly moving below 5 mil lines and spaces, pressure mounts on the developing process, challenging manufacturers to find new ways to keep consistent quality and high yields.
May 15, 2013
Computer-to-plate (CTP) printing proves its value to printers every day. The latest refinements in CTP let you spend less for pre-press and plate-making and get your plates on press faster.
April 15, 2013
The skirmishes are everywhere – roller glazing and stripping, white blankets, pH and conductivity drift, plate blinding and picture framing. Calcium buildup problems are popping up all over the pressroom. Sometimes it is only a little flare up like plate blinding, quickly taken care of by replacing the plate. But other times it is an all-out war with buildup on rollers and blankets causing poor print quality and lost press time.
March 30, 2013
My outer layer resist stripper process works fine until I run jobs with very fine lines and spaces. The dry film sometimes gets trapped between circuits causing etching problems. How can this situation be avoided?
March 15, 2013
In lithographic offset printing it is necessary to keep the non-image areas of a plate moistened with water so that they will not accept ink. During platemaking these non-image areas are desensitized, usually with a thin absorbed film of gum Arabic and desensitizer so that they prefer water instead of ink.
March 1, 2013
Chennai-based Kapoor Imaging announced its technology transfer deal with RBP Chemical Technology to set-up a plant for producing press room chemicals in India. According to the contract, RBP will provide technical know-how and chemical formulations to Kapoor Imaging for producing the chemicals at their recently expanded factory in Chennai.
February 28, 2013
Hey Rob, with all of the different selling prices and different concentrations used from one resist strip supplier to the next, how do I know whether I am getting the lowest operating cost?
February 18, 2013
Alcohol replacers were developed and generally accepted into use in the 1970’s as a replacement for isopropyl alcohol in the press ready mixture. Alcohol replacers, like isopropyl alcohol, are used in combination with a fountain concentrate to deliver a very thin and even water film across the plate surface on continuous type dampening systems. Many printers choose to eliminate the major disadvantages of isopropyl alcohol, including its health and environmental concerns, the increased cost of constant replenishment and its flammability.
February 4, 2013
The trend to finer lines and spaces continues to challenge processors of innerlayer material. With thinner core laminate and thinner copper foil, mechanical cleaning — the cleaning method of choice for years — is no longer an option.
January 30, 2013
01/30/2013–RBP Chemical Technology Inc., Milwaukee, Wis., a developer, manufacturer and distributor of high performance chemicals and consumable supplies, announced today its asset acquisition of RD Chemical Company, Mountain View, California-based RD Chemical has been supplying application-specific process chemicals for the printed circuit board, chemical milling, medical implant device, and semiconductor packaging and test equipment industries for more than 30 years.
January 21, 2013
Antifoam is unfortunately a necessary evil for developing and resist stripping spray processes. I say unfortunate because antifoams are typically petroleum- based products that we do not want on the panel.
However, the surfactants which are in the resist are dissolved into the developer or resist stripper bath and must be controlled. If this foaming isn’t controlled, it can lead to not only a mess, but a loss of spray pressure, due to pump cavitation.