Nazdar steps up

[tonypep]

Had two mishaps with emulsion. One was my fault mistaking a weight vs volume measurement. The other was that my order was mis-shipped. P-mailed Rob, called Terrie, and in 20 minutes Dave Durbin called and we rectified. Dave also clued me into the fact that once the water is added to the diazo it has a rather short shelf life (apparently true for all or most diazos). Did not know that.
Also thanks to Gary at CCI for the explanation. In short, product was overnighted and will be here this am.
Point is that as far back as 20 ys or more this type of response was practically unheard of. Just getting someone on the phone could take days to get back to you. To be sure, social media such as industry forums has had much do with how we all do business in general; both good and sometimes not so much. So thanks to all for stepping up and responding with a sense of urgency. The industry has indeed changed considerably.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

You didn't say which product you were referrencing, but I've had Diazo activated WR-25 stay good for 3 or 4 weeks. Much beyond that, no.

Did you mean that you can't mix the Diazo with water and just let it sit... BEFORE stirring it in the emulsion?

[tonypep]

The second part yes

[jsheridan]

Dave also clued me into the fact that once the water is added to the diazo it has a rather short shelf life (apparently true for all or most diazos). Did not know that.

Yep!

Couple months in the bucket and 2 weeks on a coated screen.

[tonypep]

To be clear, I am not talking about diazo activated emulsion. Its the diazo powder after the water is added Of course activated emulsion is going to have a long window.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Uh Oh... I exceed the two weeks on coated mesh regularly. What will happen if I get stung?

The Nazdar plant in Shawnee (Kansas side of Kansas City) is an amazing place. It's just a couple hours from me. 

It gives you a "We Are Serious About INK" feeling--just driving into the parking lot.

I used their ink years ago for screening flatstock, but not in the last decade. No ink, nothing.  I probably should rectify that.

[tonypep]

Stan read closer. Its the bottle of diluted diazo w/ water not the emulsions

[jvanick]

how long is the shelf-life?

we regularly mix the diazo with water and let it set an hour or so for it to fully break down, shaking a few times in that hour as we go past the screen room.

 

[tonypep]

Should be good there.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Stan read closer. Its the bottle of diluted diazo w/ water not the emulsions

No no, I got it.  But I didn't know it either, until today.  I've just been lucky, that I've never done that.

I do do something a little weird, I guess, during our slow times. I divide the gallon BEFORE adding Diazo into 5 equal parts in quart deli cups. Yes, 5. It leaves a little room to cut in the diazo and water mix. Pretty easy.

To divide the diazo, my digital scale is accurate down to a hundredth of a gram (unless the furnace in the ink mixing area is blowing. Then its hopeless.) I divide the diazo into 5 equal parts and put them back into the same bottle that comes with a quart of emulsion. Keeping my emulsion quantities more in line with my needs at the moment, I have only had emulsion go bad once in 7 years.

That won't work in most shops.

I didn't even know Nazdar made emulsion. That's how up to date I am.

[tonypep]

They don't. Supplier. This product was CCI WR14. BTW extra diazo showed up an hour ago thanx Rob!

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I need to look at their catalog.

GREAT Customer Service always gets my attention.

[mimosatexas]

I regularly have my SP1400 with diazo last 2-3 months without issue in the pot and have used coated screens 6 weeks later without problems.  I have had a handful of issues with screens around the 7-8 week mark though, but only when it came to halftones and it just required a longer soak and longer washout than normal, no issues with the final stencil.

[tonypep]

Go back to top of thread you're not reading close enough

[Doug B]

  The end of October I got 2 gallons of diazo emulsion from NazDar and the "powder" was
hard as a rock. I tried to mix one up because we were in a pinch but no-go. Their "wonderful"
customer service needed the lot numbers from the bad emulsion before they could start the
process of getting us replacements. Two weeks later I was still waiting so I ordered a gallon
from Tubelite which got to us the next day. Still waiting on replacements from NazDar. Not
everybody has the clout Tony does.