Documentation

This month I would like to assist your operation on press utilization. The one point we all can agree on is that the only time your press is profitable is when it is running. This month I will not explore on how to make your press go faster, frankly the payback in those opportunities is small and difficult. However, maximizing the ‘up’ versus ‘down’ time has very good payback for the effort and costs involved.

If you get pestered with 3:00 AM phone calls regarding run questions, I am sure I have your attention, however even if you think you are under control, to the point that you get an undisturbed night’s rest, let’s look at the reasons your set up/run times are up to the ratio they are. Even if you are ISO certified, all that means is that you are doing what you said you would, not that you are efficient or even correct! The only way to measure ‘up’ versus ‘down’ and the reasons for each is recording historical data, something I have said to you before, OK, now what do we do with this data?

The most common, (and biggest time consumer) reason for set up is registration, unless you are lucky and have one of the new presses that can pre-locate and dry register your cylinders, you spend a lot of time putting the cylinder on the right gear tooth, and setting up side lay to be correct. How can documentation help here? Primarily, by recording the incidence and reasons that you were out of register to the point you had to ‘jump’ a tooth, or in dire situations, remount, you can justify either a new or improved mounting method, or a better method to gear up the cylinders. When your ‘manual’ press is in correct registration, make a note of where the gear to plate (plate join or preferably plate cross hairs) is. This can be to the gear key-way or a scribe line on the gear, both relative to the cross hair on the plate in each deck. Done right, if you remount and re-gear mesh the cylinders in this orientation, next time you run, you should be close enough in register that there is room both in machine direction and cross direction within the press adjustments without re-meshing the gear. This data must be included on the job documentation. With enough information, you can dry register to save time and substrate. Admittedly a newer press will do this automatically. You need to be inventive on some presses, but it is worth the effort.

The second most common set up point is colour matching. Tinting or toning on press makes no sense to me. Even if this is the first time the job is run, there are existing proofing methods that can accurately predict the colour and density for that ink, on that anilox. Again, recording the time expended on actual press colour matching can help you justify additional testing equipment or in extreme cases, new ink suppliers. When the job is approved and run, record the information on the run documentation, including the anilox line and volume data. What good is it to mix the ink to the same formula, adjusted to the same viscosity only to have the colour off because you used a different anilox? If the same anilox and ink formula is used and the colour is off, the anilox is likely dirty, and here comes the data to justify an anilox cleaning device, or at the least a program to clean your most critical print tool. To accurately measure the colour, and the resulting performance of ink and anilox, densitomiters or preferably spectrophotmiters are needed, so this is how you justify purchasing and using that specific component. Once you have the measuring device and protocol in place, you will see a dramatic reduction in ‘on press’ ink toning time, and the saving of substrate to do the same.

Reduction in set time really is not reduced by the document control, but you will have no basis to establish and run any program if you fail to record historical data and set up parameters. So, in my twisted way, blame the improvement in set versus run time on the least favorite part of a press operator’s job, paperwork. We will keep the secret that we are using document control to insure that the programs we (should) have established are actually being used.

For more information on this product, please contact: info@teamflexo.com

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