Frozen Grippers KBA 164

[John Jay]

Has anyone experienced frozen grippers on the transfer gripper bar just before the coater and the coater impression cylinder itself? If so how did you correct the problem and prevent it from happening again.
My solution is to loosen each gripper and slide it to one side to clean the shaft of what looks like built-up coating. simply working the grippers back and forth with applied solvents does not loosen them. I tried a variety of solutions like penetrating oils, ammonia, anilox roller cleaner, and even isopropanol. a heat gun loosened the gripper just fine but when it cooled it just froze up again. it takes almost 8 full hours to clean up 4 bars and it only lasts about 6 months before having to repeat the process. needless to say, this is a very annoying problem that I always seem to get stuck with.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jack liston]

I would spray them every day with dw40 and tell the other people to do the same

 

[georgbob]

Frozen Grippers??? If you move the grippers, you cannot restore the pre tenzion

 

[John Jay]

Hey George, yes I made my supervisor aware of that very thing. but the press would not run due to sheets tearing in the delivery. This was the only way To get them free. I advised them to get KBA to reset them.

 

[georgbob]

ok. But I don't understand. Why the gripper freeze????

 

[John Jay]

it seems that UV coating is getting on the shafts somehow and eventually creeps into the grippers and cures rendering the grippers to freeze. We just bought a new type of coating cleaner that we are going to apply to the affected shafts every week to see if this resolves the problem. Why is coating getting on the shafts is a mystery not yet solved. I hope this answers your question, Georgbob.

 

[georgbob]

UV varnish only cures when irradiated. There is uv drying before varnishing? the varnish must not get on the grippers...
send photos of the printingtower, the coater. Does the coater work well?

 

[Printing Press Services]

UV varnish only cures when irradiated. There is uv drying before varnishing? the varnish must not get on the grippers...
send photos of the printingtower, the coater. Does the coater work well?

I know it's a while ago since this problem was posted. But this happens again and again, all the time, that's why I decided to share my advice.
I'm a self-employed print engineer from Germany called Lucky based In Enfield North London and after working for KBA AG Germany and UK for many decades I know the KBA Machines inside out. If the Grippers are not moving, or you strangling to lift the Gripper-Tip, especially if Varnish went inside the gripper, the you don't have an other chance as to take the Gripper of the Shaft totally dismantling the Gripper, cleaned throughout assembled and re-set. But it is not so easy at it sounds. There are multiple setting to be considered. I done this Job multiple times, recently in a RA 145 and in a RA 106. My advice is , Don't touched, if you don't know the settings. (Torque, over pressure, internal Gripper Load) email me at pps.london@hotmail.com or follow me on Linkedin . I can help with Doubling-issues, Feeder-Head issues, In-Feed, Grippers, Dampening-Gearboxes, In-Duct's ect.