# Silver In Offest Printing



## mda20 (Oct 10, 2011)

Hello Every body. I am pleased to see this wonderful forum. I am newbie in silver recovery business and your help is very appreciated.
My question is: what is the sources of silver in modern offest printing?

I mean what are the stuffs that I can buy from offset printing to get silver?


----------



## joem (Oct 10, 2011)

This is my area;
Computer to plate - chemestry and plates
(older) Litho film, spent developer- fix - waste water
Photo papers
Some expensive gold and silver inks
Broken or working metafix ( and similar) machines
Electronics - computers, press control panels, chemical developer panels

and last but not least 
the search button on this forum lol


----------



## mda20 (Oct 10, 2011)

Thank you *joem* for your reply. I searched the forum but I did not find enough info.

I think the modern offset printing do not use litho film. Do they?

Also they do not have fixer solution. What I know is they use mix solution that give the action of dev. and fixer.

My questions are: 

- Is that solution rich of silver? If yes, how can we recover silver from it?
- How can we recover silver from the offset plates?


----------



## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank (Oct 10, 2011)

CTP,is the name of the Demon that has finished with our silver business in newspapers...Why?,well, because it prints the offset plates directly from computer,no negatives,no spent fixer,nothing of nothing...

I have made some research on solution that developes those CTP plates,with no results...there is no silver in it....Anyone has found any silver in CTP technologies?.

Regards.

Manuel


----------



## mda20 (Oct 10, 2011)

Thank you Manuel 
There is a material used as a light sensitive coating CTP plates. I think that material is silver halide.


----------



## joem (Oct 10, 2011)

Some CTP plates are Silver halide Ultra Violet plates which uses a similar silver salt, which requires chemestry to develope. A chem free system uses laser light to burn the image into a plate and gum arabic to seal against oxidation, no developing chemicals.

And as per use of film; it is still used by many smaller shops. These shops make up the majority of printing shops out there but you mainly hear about the large commercial printers.

We still teach our students both film and CTP technolgies since film is still out there we want our students prepared but yes film is loosing ground to increasly inexpensive Chem free computer to plate systems.


----------



## mda20 (Oct 11, 2011)

Thank you *joem*.
But what about the solution, is it benefit?


----------



## joem (Oct 11, 2011)

mda20 said:


> Thank you *joem*.
> But what about the solution, is it benefit?



I have seen chemical machines with electrolytic devices attached to collect silver from solutions.
Not sure how it collected from plates


----------



## mda20 (Oct 14, 2011)

Does that mean offset solution contain silver?


----------



## joem (Oct 14, 2011)

mda20 said:


> Does that mean offset solution contain silver?



\we are talking a wide range of machines, types of chemicals, and if they use silver plates.
So to your question - I can only answer maybe


----------



## mda20 (Oct 19, 2011)

Thank you *joem* for your response and your patience on my questions.

Best regards


----------



## safesilverrecovery (Oct 21, 2011)

There are some CTP systems that use a poly plate that requires silver recovery on the solution and the plate has smaller amounts of silver and is not as easy a process to refine silver from the plate but can be done.


----------



## mda20 (Oct 24, 2011)

Thank you safesilverrecovery.

I think silver recovery business is not profitable with offset printing.


----------



## DONNZ (Dec 21, 2011)

Look up Photo Engravers in your area. 

They may still use developer, fix and real film.

That was part of a work in progress, what the heck. I'll do the whole thing here. My first post:

After reading this thread it brought back a memory, a company I once worked for and sent me on a course to a trade that lasted for 30+ years. Just dated myself, didn't I. 

This is a small company. The owner, his wife, and maybe five employees. Stay away from the big engravers unless you have a contact, posing as a customer, or an artist interested in copper scrap to experiment with. Be creative.

Dallas area:

http://www.manta.com/c/mmcfbkf/graphic-engraving-company-inc

Graphic Engraving Company Inc

Graphic Engraving Company Inc in Dallas, TX is a private company categorized under Photo Engraving. Our records show it was established in 1960 and incorporated in Texas. (No, I was in Elem. School)
 Products:
Full stamping plates & offset negatives Printing plates, Printing collators or decollators, Printing cutters, Printing trimmers, Printing punches, Printing awls, Printing assemblers, Printing guillotines, Printing accessories.

They etch zinc, magnesium, and copper.

The copper plates are the purest form of copper I know of other than .999 copper bars. And they will have a bin full of copper scrap. Unless they just sold it just before you got there. Anode / cathode material?

There is a acid resistant backing on the plates and the front should be clean and un-etched. They prefer not to etch the waste areas to conserve the acid bath. They use large vats of acid. 

Acid: could be another source. Depends on how the source is cultivated. Smaller companies enjoy giving tours and letting the process be observed. It's not a secret process.

You might ask if they process their spent photo developer and fixer or have a silver recovery unit, or sell it. Another source of silver. Scrap film if they still use film. Some save and sell it every few months, some don't. If they don't, make a deal. Percentage of silver recovered, set price per pound?
You could have one or two in your area.

Vacuum Pumps: Used printing equipment companies. All printing presses use vacuum pumps. Used pumps should be reasonably priced. Had 3 or 4 pumps but gave them away. Paid $5.00 to $15.00? Depends on how old they are. Easy to work on also.

A couple of screen shots:
No. 1 How not to etch a copper plate. But the wax dam could be handy. No. 2 Copper plate etched.


----------



## butcher (Dec 22, 2011)

I like the etching and silvering, I have thought about trying etching someday,(although I would like to etch some Knife blades I have made), maybe I will try some copper plate artwork, could you give us a recipee for the silver plating solution? 
Thanks for the informative post.


----------



## DONNZ (Dec 22, 2011)

butcher,

Can't help, still on page one of this silver processing thing.


----------



## DONNZ (Dec 23, 2011)

I'm out of date on Graphic Engraving. They have a web site but went out of business 7 years ago. 

Look up copper printing plates and they still make them. Someone out there is using them. 

Average thickness is .5 to 10 mm but we had like 1/4 inch plates. 

Back to plan B.


----------

