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.