Ink Key Calibration

Looking to add ink key presetting to our operation and in doing some testing my operator mentioned that the ink keys are not properly calibrated. I'm looking to schedule a time to do this on the press but my operator said it would take 10+ hours on to do all 5 colors on our Polly 566. Does that sound right?

I'm assuming the operation would be to remove each key, clean it, and reinstall it at a predefined point, ie fully closed (0)?

He also said that this would need to happen every 3 months, again does that sound right? Do the keys lose their position that quickly?

The press is part of a recent merger hence my ignorance.

 

not familiar with a Polly press but on an average id say that if your guy can do 5 units in 10 hours on a half sized press he's doing pretty good. How large is the sheet size of the press? Also want to allow for additional time if this routine maintenance has not been done for a long time and the ink buildup is extreme and really dried on there.

 

It is a 26" sheet. I saw a post from Meny saying that it should take 1 hour which is what got me thinking.

 

an hour per unit or an hour for all 5? If your needing to remove and clean everything before resetting its going to take you considerably longer than an hour for EACH unit depending on how much cleaning is involved and on how dry the ink has become. This is the sort of job where once you've gone through all the hassles of opening the fountain and removing the individual keys it just doesn't make sense to do a half assed job. Unless poly has managed to come up with a design thats leaps and bounds ahead of all other press manufacturers id allow a full day at the very least and that includes doing the job with a helper. If theres a pressman on the forum that can do a decent job working alone in less than a full day then you should hire him and pay him whatever he's asking.

 

I operate an SM74 5 color 1996 and we are also looking at going to ink key presetting. Ink keys are definitely not zeroed but I am told software can adjust for that. Is this true. Not sure what we are getting yet but just wondering.

 

Like to think my educated guess knowing what ink keys are out is as good as presets.

 

If the keys need mechanical adjustments or calibration then how can it be done with only software?

 

Software sends the presets and any color adjustment i make after that is saved and software adjusts accordingly. At least thats what I have been told. not sure what product they are looking at

 

As far as I understand if the ink keys are not properly calibrated or zeroed than they need to be calibrated first. Let's say if you opened all ink zones to 4 on console, all the ink zones should show the equal amount of ink on ink fountain roller/ball. If your ink keys are not calibrated you will see different amount of ink in each or any problematic zone.