Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (2)

How can we stop the piling on our web blanket?
May 13, 2008

Question: I'm a pressman running a non-heatset web and am having piling in the non-image areas on the blanket. The job is a very light-coverage form with no room for take-off bars. Why are we having to shut down and wash blankets every 3,000 cut-offs? (Oh, and I can't run any fountain solution.)

Answer: There can be many root causes with this issue—and not being on site is a real drawback. There is a simple but effective way of attacking this issue, and it just may work: I have been and still am a strong believer in air curtains in the inking unit for handling specific problems. What many pressmen do is use a 1” copper tube with 0.060” holes every 1/8” and hook it to house air and control the air at 6 psi. I would place these close to ink rollers on both the dry side and the wet side of the inker. No air must hit the plate, and it can only hit the ink rollers above the forms. This isn't a big cost to solve the problem.

Readers, please e-mail your questions to Ray. 
 

Posted by Raymond Prince on May 13, 2008 | Comments (2)