Problem with Ilford Multigrade Deluxe RC paper--defect?

[DKT]

I have a couple of emails out to Ilford right now and am awaiting a response, but I was curious if anyone else had stumbled across this problem. I'm working on a project right now and we have bought 8, 50 sheet 16x20 boxes of paper for this, all with the new harman logo. The paper arrived in January, and we've just started printing this week.

On almost every sheet (but not all) of paper out of the first box, there was a smallish (about the size of a pencil eraser or a little smaller) diffuse density spot (black) that first appeared about an inch and a half into the top portion of each sheet. It appeared to move laterally across from one sheet to the next. It is on paper pulled fresh out of the box and processed unexposed as well. It doesn't look like a fixer or processing stain caused by the machine, and doesn't appear to be fogged in our darkroom. Other paper (kodak, ilford) process fine--the 2150 machine in use is working as it should, and these 16x20 prints are being selenium toned as well, and the blemish in the border areas increase in d-max along with the image area when toned, but doesn't stain like a residual fixer stain would. It is stronger in the center, in terms of d-max, but has a slight diffuse halo on the edges.

The prints I'm making will be matted, and at first this spot was in the borders so I figured the mat would cover them up, but now it is appearing in the image area, so I had to try another new box of paper and the same sort of mark is on some of those sheets as well. The paper was all purchased at the same time, from the same vendor and seems to be the same emulsion number. I would attach a scan, but I honestly don't have time to scan the prints and they're 16x20 sheets as well. My question is simply has anyone else encountered this with recent batches of Ilford paper?

Thanks in advance--

Kent Thompson, Photographer
North Carolina Museum of History
Email: kent.thompson@ncmail.net

Opinions expressed in this message may not represent the policy of my agency. This email message is also subject to North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.

 

[fschifano]

I don't use this paper and especially not in this size but what you are describing sure sounds like the paper was light struck at some point during manufacture or packaging. Eight 50 sheet boxes of 16x20 paper is a big cash outlay. I'd contact Ilford about the problem. Gather the batch numbers from all the boxes. They will probably ask for that information. See what they have to say.

 

[DKT]

I heard back from Ilford US and apparently they don't support the traditional materials, that would be Harman in the UK. I have sent emails to them and got an autoreply, but no response yet. I guess I'lll try again, or try to call them or contact Simon.

I'm a little confused right now, because the warranty for the paper says to send it back to Ilford US Consumer Services, but they deferred me to Harman for support. The fine print for Ilford US warranty says that you need to return the product to them as well--so I take this to mean sending the defective sheets and the original packaging & remaining paper--which at 16x20 50 sheet boxes, is not going to be entirely easy for us to repack & send, not to mention pay for.

In the old days, if we got a defective product like chemistry or paper--our rep or techs would take the sample, and they'd send a replacement and the bad stuff was thrown away.

Now though, I'm not sure if there even are any reps left in the US. I sure would like to know if anyone has a contact.

KT

Email: kent.thompson@ncmail.net

Opinions expressed in this message may not represent the policy of my agency. This email message is also subject to North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.

 

[titrisol]

I'd contact Simon right away.... that answer sounds ludicrous

 

[lee]

Ilford America is only a distribution company and is really not with Harmon anymore since the restructureing Harmon in the UK is black and white materials they are the ones to talk to.

lee\c

 

[DKT]

I've been trying to contact them since wednesday, but haven't gotten a reply yet...yeah, I know there are time differences etc, so the reason why I posted here was to see if anyone else had encountered this sort of problem.

I will contact Simon if I don't get a reply back by next week, but I thought I'd give their website contact information a try, since it's there. If you didn't know about apug, or Simon's presence here, what else would you be able to do, other than contact the company through what they give online?


KT

Opinions expressed in this message may not represent the policy of my agency. This email message is also subject to North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.

 

[DKT]

I just wanted to post a quick follow-up and say that I received a reply from Ilford US tech support this afternoon apologizing for the mix up from the earlier response saying that they only supported the inkjets and color materials. I'm not sure what happened, but they were very helpful and wanted to assure me that Ilford US does support the products sold here in the US, and the customer service queries are still handled through them.

If the post I made here helped spur this along, I want to say thanks to whoever passed it on.

KT

Opinions expressed in this message may not represent the policy of my agency. This email message is also subject to North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.

 

[Simon R Galley]

Hi Kent

This is most odd, our US distributor does support monochrome, and we take everything QC related very seriously, please contact me on my APUG e.mail and I will give you the US technical contact and I will ensure your problem is sorted, I am sorry
about the delay I have been away for 10 days

Simon. ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited

 

[Simon R Galley]

That will teach me to read to the end of the thread before putting fingers to keyboard......Simon.

 

[DKT]

Simon--I've been in touch with Ilford US in the past day or so and the problem has been resolved, and Rod Parsons has been a great help as well, I might add.

I did originally receive an email response from the US site,after about two days, but it stated that they supported inkjet and color materials material only, and they recommended contacting Harman through the UK website. After posting here though, I received another message later the next day--apparently the first message went to Switzerland, and bypassed the US branch altogether--so it was just a website mix up I guess.

I never got a response from 2 emails to the Ilford Photo UK site though. I got autoreplies in both cases, but never anything more than that.

KT

Opinions expressed in this message may not represent the policy of my agency. This email message is also subject to North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.