Duct settings and ratio's conflicting opinions!

Hello all.
I currently work at a printers where we operate an Ls429, Ls529 and a 1029p.
Initially, all presses ran a very low duct speed, around 8 percent and no higher than 12. Slides were set open and ratio's quite low. Apparently, when the presses were installed, before I started, these are the settings that komori recommended as these machines in particular are supposed to do short run jobbing work. Now, a couple of us decided to alter these settings, much to the anger of the rest of the team! We started to run at higher duct speeds, around 35-50, tighter ink slides and higher ratio's. This has caused one hell of a divide and we have been told that we are completely wrong running at these settings! We personally believe that colour control is much more accurate. Can I please get a few opinions from others? As this really needs to be put to bed! Thanks very much!

 

I think that Ink Set and Ink Ratio settings are somewhat of an operator preference. And even though various different settings will work okay, I still think that there are definite advantages to certain number settings in particular. Unfortunately though, even if some stranger on the internet were to try and explain which settings they think are the best, I’m guessing it still probably wouldn’t satisfy every operator out there, all of the time. And quite frankly, why should it?

Personally, I wish you good luck in finding an agreeable compromise with your coworkers.

 

I personally like a higher turn with a lower key setting. I feel I see a quicker response to colour adjustments. Also, having a higher turn gives another finer colour adjustment option.
I feel with a turn of 8, any fountain turn adjustment would be a big colour change.
The only other thing I'd say is, run where you feel comfortable. Operating at the ideals of others isn't doing you any favours.
Good luck.

 

My preference is to set up with the sweep close to the middle of its range, provided that it allows adequate zonal control for areas of light coverage. I like to see a good "peel" off of my ink ball, to aid in the flow of ink through the keys. Of course there are them light coverage forms that make ink control harder when running sweep up that high. If it gets to a point where my ink ball is turning too slow I will opt to change the ducting ratio if the press is so equipped, in order to allow the ball to turn well.
Almost sounds like you working the night shift. Its been my experience that OFTEN the night shift is looked at as "guests" on the press, and should be willing to follow the day shifts lead on how such things work!!! to this I say "bullpoopies"

 

A simple solution on those machines would be that you can set up your conversion tables to run as many different profiles as you want; effortlessly changing back and forth after each shift, or even every job. Unfortunately, getting your coworkers to agree with that might be another thing entirely.