Overcooked or Overcured; Both Can End with Unfortunate Results
By Darren Gapen | Posted on January 04, 2010
Here we are in the new year of 2010 and the holidays are now behind us. Most of us spent some time visiting family and friends. Probably eating and drinking more than we wanted to but we all know between Thanksgiving and New Years is not the most opportune time for us to start any diets.
How many of you had gone over to a someone’s house, spent the day basking in the magnificent aromas of a home cooked dinner being prepared in the kitchen? You just couldn’t wait to sit down for the meal. As the serving dishes were passed around the table, you filled your plate with all of those delicious looking sides and then came “The Bird”. You piled on the white meat. Once Uncle Buddy said grace, it was time to dig in.
You started filling your palette with all of those wonderful tastes of the sides and now it’s time to fill the fork with turkey. As you’re starting to chew, you quickly realize that your host has dried out the bird. Yes, overcooked and what a disappointment! You immediately scramble to find the gravy on the table and ask to have it passed to you. Now your white meat is swimming in a pool of brown sauce while you are wishing that someone would have taken the bird from the oven sooner, but you still complement the chef on her delicious meal.
Sitting with your family after dinner, you overheard some of your relatives sharing recipes and talking about the holiday dinners hosted in past years. Then you hear mention of the turkey and how it was left it in the oven an hour and a half longer than needed and a temp set 75 degrees higher than called for, just to make sure it was cooked thoroughly. Some folks tend to feel that more is better. Well it’s the same case in some pressrooms.
A total of 11 separate customer press OK’s, five sheetwise forms, a w/t cover and two days on press. The customer was ecstatic and all of the UV print and special effects look great. The job is still in the pressroom and on its way to the bindery.
As the folder operator starts to make ready the first form, he discovers the cracking on the folds. Havoc and panic start. They try to score the sheets first, though it’s printed on text weight stock. Is the coverage just too much? What caused the cracking? Well it wasn’t the coverage. It was the amount of energy used.
The four interdeck lamps and three end of press lamps were all set to 100%. This has not only stripped the sheet of any moisture, it has also overcured the UV coating which caused it to be brittle. The job looked great while it laid flat on the skids but then when folded, the sheets would give.
While running UV, you do take the risk for something like this to happen. Use only the amount of energy needed to dry the individual colors and check the cure of the coating when it’s coming off the press. If you wait until the job is in the bindery, it’s usually too late. There’s truly no reason to run UV lamps at 100%, just because.
And to those holiday cooks that want to overcook “The Bird” just to be safe. Follow the recipes. None of us want salmonella but most of us do love a moist turkey.
