Quickmaster DI operator q

We are doing digital printing on Xerox DC250 for some time and I am interested in purchasing used QM DI and I have several basic questions:
Do I need skilled offset machine operator or working with QM can be learned along the way?
What is the price of plates?
What is the price of monthly maintance?
Is it better to purchase DI Pro with 15mio+ or DI Classic with 5mio+ if they are similiar in price?

 

If your Xerox operator is a fast learner, then it is possible, as I followed the same upgrade. Will definetly require some training, as it isn't something you can just read the manual and pick up.
Plates generally average to about $10 US per unit per job, so 4 color job is $40 for plates.
That depends on who you get to service it. I had a Heidelberg service contract which was around $1400 US per month...quite costly, but it covered most all parts and service. Lasers were not included, but in the 4 years I ran my QMDI, I never had a single issue with the laser diodes.
I would go with the pro, as 15 mil isn't really all that much more use, if it has been taken care of.

Cheers,

Tracy

 

Press experience preferable, I would highly recommend getting training before buying, at least 3 to 4 weeks. This would included calibration, form roller adjustments, lubrication, cleanup and maintenance and actual running. If it proves to difficult consider the cost of failure if you bought it.

I'ld say now closer to $13.00 but any scratches cost another plate, about 1 in 8, setting lasers, at least 1 per roll of 35.

Environment for press requires temperature to be about 22C or less to prevent toning. 3 phase power, cement floor capable of supporting in order of 6000 pounds, clearance for service. Press roller cooler generates about 3 tons (36,000 BTU) heat load plus infrared drier (required in my opinion)of perhaps another ton (12,000 btu). We remote located the cooler to furnace room outside airconditioned area using 50 feet horizontal lines to reduce cooling load.

I think you will want 12"x18" press sheets in 2 to 20,000 range or stocks not runable on copier like envelopes to justify. Probably in the range of 3 Doc 250's before getting enough of these other jobs to justify.

Startup and cleaning time is a big issue, a decent cleanup 2 hours day. If running every day you could spray ink fountains, reducing cleanup to 1 hour a day, 3 hours Friday for the blanket washers, ink fountains, etc. 12 hour o r 2 or 3 shift operation would reduce the cleanup impact.

Also see http://www.dipressforums.com/ for more info.

Ken,
DI Plus owner

 

A normal cleanup only takes me less than 30 mins.
That includes removing the ink from the fountains, cleaning them completely and cleaning the rollers and also wiping the squeegees clean.
Other cleaning that will come into play is the ink cleanup trays which will add about 10 - 15 minutes each, but they all won't need cleaned at the same time usually.
There is also the blanket washing devices which also require about 10 - 15 minutes each for cleaning and replacing the felts. These again won't necessarily need to be changed all at once. It would be best to stagger them a day apart, so it doesn't consume a large amount of time to clean all four units.
When the plate cleaning devices require changing, that shouldn't take any more than 10 minutes each either.
I do not recommend leaving ink in the trays overnight and sprayed with overnight spray, as even if the keys are set to zero, the ink that is on the keys will dry and will not be as accurate the following day with the key settings, as there will be a small dried layer on the end of the keys, not allowing as much ink on the fountain roller as needed.

 

Leaving ink in the duct does no harm whatsover, just keep an eye on what it is doing and give it an occasional stir a couple of times a day, so if it does start to set at the back of the ink don't scrape it back into the main ink mix it in and not expect any spots, then clean it out, thats what a good operator would do........and will reduce your cleanup times over a week/month/year !!

 

I agree with you about rotating during the day if you are not running much, but if the press sits overnight without any of this rotation, then it will begin to set and dry.
If you leave ink in your fountain overnight you will get two things...
1. Dried ink on the fountain roller on the underneath side where your spray cannot hit. If you do not first clean the fountain roller before you startup again, once the fountain roller is rotated, this dried ink will catch on the ink keys and contaminate your ink.
2. Even if you close your ink keys to zero, you will find ink finds its way down the ink foil and makes for more cleanup the following day. Plus the ink does dry on the end of the keys which makes the distance between the end of the keys and the fountain roller tighter than it was the previous day.
You can certainly test this by running a job and measure your densities, then stop for the day, save your ink key settings, set to zero and spray your in fountain with overnight spray.
Then the next morning, start back up, load your saved ink key settings and start running your job again. Because there is dried ink on the end of your keys, not as much ink is getting drawn through the keys which will therefor put less ink onto the fountain roller and will of course print at lighter density.

 

Of the thousands of printing machines around the world......Unfortunatly printing isn't an exact science and allowances have to be made, otherwise the owners don't make money that keep the little people in jobs.......