Speedmaster 72 Lubrication/Humming issue

Hello All,

We have two Speedmaster 72 in the plant. One runs 100 weight oil in the main lubrication system, the other 150.....back in the day the operators agreed the 5c press could get away with higher weight oil because it didn't have as many printing units. The 6c press runs the 100.

Anyway, the 5c has a pretty loud hum when the press starts up in the morning that goes away later in the day when the press warms up. In the summer time it is much quieter in the morning than the winter(Chicago based).

The pressman was able to use the screwdriver up to your ear method to isolate the filter housing appears to be the source of the humming.

My questions are:

the manual shows the "enclosed gears" should have 100 weight and the central lubrication system should have 100 weight. Not sure which is which?

secondly, would or could this higher weight oil be the cause of the humming?

also, we suspect the filter housing has a bypass that may be "fluttering" causing this noise.

Thanks in advance!

 

We have done a little more investigation. The filter housing was swapped with our other press and there was no change in the humming
We also swapped the distribution block post filter with the other press and didn't change the humming
We also took out about 10 gallons of the 150 weight oil and replaced with 100 weight to thin it down...also no change

One thing we have noticed now is that on the sight glass that shows if the oil is flowing....on the press making the noise it is flowing continuously when the press is running(including idling).

Our other SpeedMaster 72 only shows oil flowing in the sight glass during its lube cycle....every 45k impressions, but not when idling.

At this point, is the fact that the press making the noise is always showing oil flow in the sight glass normal or should it only be on the lubrication cycle?

 

Check the pickup tube for the oil. Not uncommon for this "filter", its more like a screen to get plugged up causing the oil pump to work harder than it should. If this is screen is plugged, it could be causing the noise you are hearing.

 

Thanks exheidmech, we did clean the screen and guess what?

It worked!!! Not 100% as quiet as it should be but greatly reduced humming noise.