In the label production process, tiny
pollutants in the air are one of the main culprits (waste and production downtime).
The printing house is currently facing no problem with this problem. The sticker printing plant believes that
the material supplier film is not clean, and the supplier accuses the printing factory of a poor working
environment. Both sides are in a dilemma.
Label materials are very sensitive to
static buildup. The accumulated electrostatic image is a magnet that attracts
contaminants around the surface of the material. These contaminants can come
from packaging, clothing fibers, hair, cut dust, ink, metal dust, etc., can
cause printing problems.
There are two main causes of airborne
contaminants that can cause waste in flexo printing plants:
1. Contaminants are transferred from the
substrate to the impression cylinder
This situation can cause image errors in
the print. The general treatment is to stop and clean all the impression
cylinders. The cleaning process typically takes 1 to 2 hours of downtime,
resulting in 50/100 meters of waste.
2. Contaminants are transferred directly
from the substrate to the plate roll
This situation results in a solid particle
on the plate roll. This situation is exacerbated if UV ink is very thin and
very viscous, and a small amount of dust will stick to the plate stick to form
a repeatable error. The operator should use a soft brush or rag to clean the
running plate stick. First of all, such an approach is not safe. In addition,
if it cannot be removed, the operator must stop, clean all the plate rolls,
re-register the machine, and check the print and quality again. This process
will produce 50 meters of waste, lost production time, and more importantly,
the problem has not been fundamentally resolved.
Solution - cleaning the substrate
It sounds simple and obvious, but what do
you use to clean the substrate?
In the past few years, the benefits of
contact cleaning technology for the label printing industry have been promoted.
Originally developed for the electronics industry, this innovative cleaning
method is now selected and used by the world's leading printing equipment
manufacturers and label printing companies to integrate into their production
systems.
Use a dust removal static cleaning system
to polymerize the cleaning roller to clean the substrate. The cleaning roller
removes dry, separate contaminants from the substrate and transfers them to a
unique reverse-wound paper roll that is electrostatically cleaned by the Thai
Dust Removal System. When the sticky paper is full of contaminants, replace the
layer of sticky paper and continue to clean without interruption of printing
production. The cleaning technology of the dust removal and static cleaning
system removes contaminants as small as 2 microns from the surface of the
substrate.
How to save?
The use of dust removal and static cleaning
systems to reduce waste and downtime results in label printing production.
For example, a 4-color 345 mm flexo press
runs different printed materials. Under normal conditions, there are 4 solid
particles on the plate roll for 8 hours of operation per shift. Based on a
large number of example experiences, dust removal and static cleaning systems
reduce the likelihood of producing more than half of the solid particles.
Assume that the dust removal and static cleaning system only
prevents one stop/shift (usually more than 2 times), each time down for 20
minutes (minimum estimate), generating about 100 meters of waste, and the printing factory works for 50 weeks in
1 year. Weekly production for 5 days.