Protect Your Investment
Operator Maintenance:
Many operators do not take this subject seriously enough, and try and squeeze in machine maintenance during less busy periods. Over time this increases costs due to more waste and loss of production time.
A good way to plan your maintenance is to schedule it on the production board setting a regular amount of time that can only to be cancelled in an emergency, such as a VIP customer needing a job done in a hurry. Even so whenever maintenance is cancelled it should be re-scheduled for the closest next opportunity or it will be overlooked and you're back to square one.
During the allocated maintenance time you're the press should always be greased at all the nominated points, which includes the grippers. Since greasing grippers can result in grease getting onto the printed sheet, some customers avoid doing this. At the very least, the cam followers should be greased. This only takes a few minutes, grease won't get onto the job and it will help keep your press running.
A second equally important function during maintenance is the cleaning of the gripper pads. Not many operators ever consider doing this, but this simple task can help keep your costs down and improve machine uptime.
The easiest way to clean the gripper pads is by lifting the gripper and using a wire brush to remove the dried ink and paper dust from the pad grooves. Doing this properly assists with print output - with the grippers holding on to the sheet better and helping to reduce sheet movement during production. Quality is improved, waste paper and production time are reduced and many register faults are resolved by doing a comprehensive pad cleaning job.
Many operators do not take this subject seriously enough, and try and squeeze in machine maintenance during less busy periods. Over time this increases costs due to more waste and loss of production time.
A good way to plan your maintenance is to schedule it on the production board setting a regular amount of time that can only to be cancelled in an emergency, such as a VIP customer needing a job done in a hurry. Even so whenever maintenance is cancelled it should be re-scheduled for the closest next opportunity or it will be overlooked and you're back to square one.
During the allocated maintenance time you're the press should always be greased at all the nominated points, which includes the grippers. Since greasing grippers can result in grease getting onto the printed sheet, some customers avoid doing this. At the very least, the cam followers should be greased. This only takes a few minutes, grease won't get onto the job and it will help keep your press running.
A second equally important function during maintenance is the cleaning of the gripper pads. Not many operators ever consider doing this, but this simple task can help keep your costs down and improve machine uptime.
The easiest way to clean the gripper pads is by lifting the gripper and using a wire brush to remove the dried ink and paper dust from the pad grooves. Doing this properly assists with print output - with the grippers holding on to the sheet better and helping to reduce sheet movement during production. Quality is improved, waste paper and production time are reduced and many register faults are resolved by doing a comprehensive pad cleaning job.
Tips & Tricks
Find out more Tips & Tricks here.
