Blanket and Roller Wash_BLITZ Vs VM111

[Pablo_G]

Good Day everyone!!!
At this moment I am cleaning my QMDI46 Plus with "Allied BLITZ" Medium/Fast Dry Blanket and Roller Wash: http://dgraphicsolutions.com/upload/1265930433msds-al-10114.pdf. A much closer supplier has offered me other Blanket and Roller Wash product instead of BLITZ; VWM WASH / VM111 : http://www.offsetsupplies.co.uk/userfiles/file/varn/8006.pdf. Does anyone has experience cleaning a QMDI46 with a chemical product like VM111? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both products?
Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Paul Cavanaugh]

I am not familiar with that wash, but I can tell you the blanket wash rollers are very sensitive to washes that have properties which are much different than Pronto.

Watch the roller for softness, the roller should be firm, if it starts to soften the roller wash is not going to work.

 

[Pablo_G]

We are cleaning by hand at this moment. BLITZ is a "99% Aliphatic petroleum distillates"(non mentioned), non water miscible chemical product.
VM111 is a "petroleum distillate blend"(Naphtha hydrodesulfurized heavy (1) and (2), solvent Naphtha light aromatic...) water miscible chemical product. I Don´t know whether "Trimethylbenzene, Cumene, Mesitylene and Xylene" are Aliphatic petroleum distillates or not.
For more information, please take a look to the above PDFs and the following information about Aliphatic petroleum distillates: http://www.northerntails.com/images/What_are_Petroleum_Distillates.pdf
Does Pronto works well either for manual or automatic wash?
Thanks again.

 

[DMike]

I am also currently washing by hand. I use a Varn product V120 that I use for both rollers and blankets with great success. It is water miscible. I do dry the blankets with dry cloth after washing.

 

[Bill Borcicky]

I used pronto and varn v120. Both of these products worked well for the press I had run.
Many pressmen are washing blankets by hand due to the time and cost of automatic wash. Those cleaning trays for the blankets always were a pain to keep clean.

 

[Paul Cavanaugh]

Bill you are correct about it taking time to clean the trays. About 40 minutes a week to clean them properly, which means at the end of the week taking them apart, dumping the solution out, cleaning all of the components until they look like stainless steel again and putting a new felt in it. What typically happens is the operator takes the device to a rag bucket dumps all the solution out the end of it (Getting ink and solution all over the springs and cam mechanism on one end.) Takes it to a table opens it up, slaps a new felt in it and goes back to work. After about two months of doing this the washer never works properly again and gets progressively worse until they are removed from the machine entirely and relegated to a shelf to be forgotten.

I can tell you the money that everyone thinks they are saving by not fixing them is a pipe dream. Lets just say you are doing 8 jobs per shift in a one shift shop and for arguments sake, 1 blanket wash per job. When the washers are working it washes all 4 blankets in about 30 seconds, at the end of the week you have spent 20 minutes washing blankets and add to that 40 minutes to clean the washers properly, so you have 1 hour total in blanket cleaning for the week.

By hand the best I have been able to wash a blanket is 1 minute, that's washing it and drying it using two rags. You would spend 2 hours and 40 minutes in hand washing in a week, 1 hour and 40 minutes more per week than the automatic blanket washers. That comes out to 86 hours and 40 minutes extra time at the end of a 52 week working year. If you are billing your machine out at 150.00 per hour you just lost 13,000.00 trying to hand wash blankets.

I have rebuilt so many of these units it is impossible to even reasonably make a guess as to the number. In every instance the customer was grateful to have them working again. And took better care of them afterwards...

 

[Pablo_G]

I am also currently washing by hand. I use a Varn product V120 that I use for both rollers and blankets with great success. It is water miscible. I do dry the blankets with dry cloth after washing.

So...
Blitz: Evaporates after cleaning. It is not necessary to dry the blankets after washing.
V120 and Pronto: Water miscible. Can be mixed with water for economy (both?). It is necessary to dry the blankets after washing (both?).
Anything else?
Is there any risk of damaging the DI plates if V120 or Pronto leak over them?
Thanks for your collaboration

 

[Paul Cavanaugh]

I cant speak for the Blitz, but I know Pronto will not damage the plates, does not have to be mixed with water and will dry after 20 revolutions after the blanket wash.

V120 works for washing the rollers and washing the blankets by hand. It does not work in the automatic blanket washers.

 

[Pablo_G]

I am not familiar with that wash, but I can tell you the blanket wash rollers are very sensitive to washes that have properties which are much different than Pronto.

Watch the roller for softness, the roller should be firm, if it starts to soften the roller wash is not going to work.

Hello again.
Does anyone know what happen if I use a "regular Roller Wash" to wash only the rollers at the end of the working day?
I would keep using Pronto for cleaning the blankets and isopropyl alcohol for cleaning the plates.
Thanks.

 

[Paul Cavanaugh]

Hello again.
Does anyone know what happen if I use a "regular Roller Wash" to wash only the rollers at the end of the working day?
I would keep using Pronto for cleaning the blankets and isopropyl alcohol for cleaning the plates.
Thanks.

Regular roller wash should not be an issue as long as it is compatible with you rubber rollers. Heidelberg recommends using FOGRA approved washes.

 

[Pablo_G]

Regular roller wash should not be an issue as long as it is compatible with you rubber rollers. Heidelberg recommends using FOGRA approved washes.

Thank you so much for your answer, Paul, I really appreciate it.
By the way, did somebody ever have any experience using a regular roller wash for SYN TAC 34H-K3, QMDI-46 rollers?
Thanks in advance.