Heidelberg Numbering units

Discussion in 'Heidelberg Printing Presses' started by DeluxeBD, Aug 3, 2016.

  1. DeluxeBD

    DeluxeBD Member

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    Hi.. we have several 1 and 2 color GTOs with numbering units and they all tend to leak ink out on the edges of the fountain ball and blade. Some are worse than others of course. It's more of an annoyance than a printing issue, but it's been a problem for a number of years. I was wondering if any of you have experienced this and would have any tricks of tips to help solve that issue. Right now our operators will tape pieces of coverstock under the outer edges of the fountain blade to catch the ink... it would be nice if we could make it so they don't have to do that anymore. Thanks!
     
  2. junker1984

    junker1984 Senior Member

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    Are the blades worn to knife edge on the ends? Replace blades. Is there too much of a gap between blade ends and cheeks? Refit blade to cheeks to within a gnats ***, or .002" if you've got big gnats down there. Are fountain rollers scored? Replace rollers or have them resurfaced. Seem this would cover all bases of leaky fountains, one symptom or a combination of all.
     
  3. junker1984

    junker1984 Senior Member

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    Funny, the site replaced my gnat's *** with ***. Might offend someone, yes? In the printing industry....not :)
     
  4. DeluxeBD

    DeluxeBD Member

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    Lol! Right... that's highly technical terminology in the printing industry! Thanks junker... I'll investigate further. Our maintenance team wants to say that it is an ink issue... that our ink now is more viscous than it used to be, and it is, but we've been catching ink on these things as far back as 19 years ago when I came on board. Back then you could stick your knife in the ink can and it would stand up straight for an entire week if you left it there... not so much anymore. Hopefully, we can find something to help eliminate or at least reduce the problem.
     
  5. NotAGooner

    NotAGooner Senior Member

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    Yeah, for numbering, you don't need a viscous (loose) ink, have you tried Van Son rubber based, that has more body to it?
     
  6. DeluxeBD

    DeluxeBD Member

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    Thanks for your reply. It's a difficult balance, because there has been a move to not have as many different inks in house. Part of came from a time when we would have 4 or 5 different lines of ink that would all work, but certain operators preferred certain inks. The powers that be have tried to eliminate that, but it may be that we don't have a choice with the numbering units if the leaks continue to be an issue. VanSon is our ink supplier, so getting rubber base wouldn't be a problem, and it's a suggestion I could make.
     
  7. NotAGooner

    NotAGooner Senior Member

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    Yeah but numbering requires a different type of ink to normal offset inks, even though, you can use offset inks for numbering, so being as it's a different printing process, surely the powers that be will allow that?
     
  8. DeluxeBD

    DeluxeBD Member

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    One would hope so. It may be the only good option as I learned that we somewhat recently spent 4 grand to rebuild one of these units to the specs that junker mentioned to not really help the issue. Like I said though, they've leaked as far back as I can remember, but a stiffer ink would surely limit it some. I guess I was hoping someone had some crazy duct tape/cotton ball/rubberband solution to common problem. :)
     
  9. junker1984

    junker1984 Senior Member

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    Guess I'd have to ask who did the work and what procedures were followed. Spending 4k on parts that were not properly installed would would give you the results you've mentioned.
     
  10. DeluxeBD

    DeluxeBD Member

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    Understood. We have an experienced maintenance crew that does a good and thorough job with these types of things. I'm not going to discredit them on how they did it or the procedures followed, because I don't have any first hand knowledge. Generally though, they know what they're doing. I do appreciate your feedback... hopefully with a combination of these things, we'll find a fix.
     

  11. junker1984

    junker1984 Senior Member

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    Very good, BD! PM me if your mechanics have any questions regarding procedure. It's obviously ancient technology, and bells and whistles free, but when spending that much on new parts, often times "good enough" is not good enough.
     
    johnpaul likes this.
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