Question: Didde Start-up Procedures

Howdy Folks,

I'm a prepress guy at a printing company and they are running Didde 175's / 860's downstairs. The presses have conventional dampening systems on them.

My question is what is the proper start-up procedure? Should the operators be dampening their plates before dropping the form rollers etc.?

I used to run sheet fed presses years ago and always dampened the plate before dropping the form rollers to prevent ink build-up, screens being filled in and to save on paper and so on.

Thanks, Bob

 

Your 860s should have either quad flow or tri flow, the 175s had conventional. Anyway, the best way to start up a dry web is to have a very small sponge in the tray, start the press on a slow idle, while the doctor is spinning add fountain solution to it only with the fountain water on. Drop your water form, look for a shiny plate, then hit ink and impression. Shine is good, dull is bad.

 

Thanks for the reply. The way they are doing it now . . . looks like their just dropping the form rollers on the plate dry after start up and relying on the rollers/fountain to clean the plate. It makes more sense to me to dampen the plate first like you are stating.

 

On a press with conventional its much easier to get it balanced once the ductor is saturated. On a press with quad flow, tri flow or Dahlgren the ink/water is combined, but dampening happens immediately.

 

So a quad flow, tri flow or Dahlgren doesn't require any manual dampening? Only with the conventional system.

 

Correct.

 

Thanks again for the info. This will help a lot.

Bob

 

Thats what i do... Forms first, wait a few seconds then blankets.

 

I need some pointers on setting meter roller and chrome roller. Didde 860 quad flow.
First i check my stripes then meter and chrome.

But i just can't seem to getting it. It takes me a long time to figure it out . But next time it will be a different solution. So frustrated.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

 

Carlos did you get this figured out? Do you have a press manual? We have a couple quad flows in our shop and there is a process to follow to set them up. Let me know and I can post it.

 

Chad... I've been getting better at setting pan,meter, chrome rollers.

But I would still like to hear how others do it.