grafix digitronic 3000

Discussion in 'Komori Printing Presses' started by northern-andy, Nov 1, 2011.

  1. northern-andy

    northern-andy Member

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    does any one have a manual for a grafix digitronic 3000, spray device? In the last 2 weeks weve been getting setoff.Ive blasted all the lines out with air , drained all the powder out to see if there is any hard crud in there.Any ideas anyone
     
  2. turbotom1052

    turbotom1052 Senior Member

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    Have you removed each individual spray nozzle and cleaned the orifices? Are your setoff issue confined to one area of the sheet? If the nozzles are clean and the lines are clear i would try putting the unit into test mode and place the back of your hand under each individual nozzle to see if you can feel a light breeze of air. I say the BACK of your hand only because its more sensitive than the palm of your hand. Then load the hopper up with some dry, fluffed powder and try to find some sort of black sheet of paper and run it through the press until its under the nozzles. Then turn the unit on test so you can observe if spray is actually making it onto the sheet. You should be able to see the spray pattern on the black sheet and it should be pretty even across the entire width of the sheet. The black slip sheet that comes in between some plate manufacturers plates is what ive used in the past. These test should be able to let you know if your unit is working properly. If it turns out your unit is working then id be looking into other areas that could cause your setoff issues.
    One other thing you might want to check. If the unit checks out in test mode and your running a late model press with the unit intergrated into your presses electronics you might want to be sure the press consoles powder on switch is enabled.
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2012
  3. northern-andy

    northern-andy Member

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    Hi, Turbotom.
    Two years down the track and im having a few set off problems again and wonder if you can help.
    i ran a 4000 sheet run and in the middle of the run it appears that the spray device on the press either stopped working or gave out a lower amount of powder than my original settings, as there was lots of set off.
    I usually spray the fist side of my jobs on 08% and the gap on 00 and turn it up to 10% on the 2nd side.
    Ive done quite a bit of testing since this happened and have found that the black box on the spray unit was not making the vibrator at the back of the spray bowl agitate, the electrician rekons hes fixed it and although it is vibrating again my settings are all out the window.
    The gap now runs at 0.1
    I was wondering what the correct settings with a feeler gauge would be for the gap it goes up in increments of 00 0.1 0.2 0.3 etc.
    Are these for the grade of powder of measurements of thous
    thanks in advance
     
  4. turbotom1052

    turbotom1052 Senior Member

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    The gap settings on the unit are not in thousands of an inch, but in millimeters. I run my digitronic unit for average coverage, 1st side printing, with the gap set at .01 which would be 1 tenth of a millimeter, and the vibration setting on around 35. The fact that you were able to run yours so low in the past is a bit of a mystery to me as ive worked with more than one Graphx powder unit and was never able to run it as low as that, as much as id like to have.
    a few things you could check out would be.....
    a) remove all nozzles and inspect for any clogging
    b) while the nozzles are off, blow out each individual line with clean and DRY compressed air
    c) Be sure the air guage on the unit is reading where it should be. I think anywhere in the green would be ok. If not clean the pumps filter.
    d) if your unit is not tied directly to the presses sheet size setting i would recommend you set the sheet length for the longest size and keep it there.
    e) be sure the lever on the bottom of the cover is set for powdering of the largest width sheet and also leave it there.
    f) verify that the gap setting is in fact correct by checking it with a set of metric feeler gauges
    g) last but not least i would make the above mentioned maintenance part of your regular routine. when you consider how all your best presswork efforts can be ruined by the final link in the printing chain it amazes me that the powder unit maintenance doesn't come with higher priority for many people..
    as a final note I would encourage you to huddle up with your prepress guys to be sure that all rich black builds do not exceed the recommended percentages for the stock you are running. There seems to be a bit of difference of opinion on exactly what the maximum percentages should be but speaking as a pressman i would say that total rich black percentages on a quality gloss coated stock should NEVER exceed 300% unless of course your inline coating the job.
     
    Last edited: Oct 1, 2013

  5. northern-andy

    northern-andy Member

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    cheers Turbotom, it appears that the brass shaker at the bottom of the powder hopper was not set right as well as the digitronic % buttons having dirty contacts within the black circuit box.Somehow the didgitronic stopped pulsing in the middle of a run and then started working again.....sneaky!
    I was running on 08% with the gap on 00, makes sense now that its being set correctly.
    Also we managed to set the air feed that "fluffs" the powder up in the hopper.It only needed a tweak but has made all the difference.
    I managed to get hold of a service manual for a ryobi, although im running a Komori.
    thanks again for your input
     
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