Varn Press Maintenance Programme

Press Maintenance Programme

Press Maintenance Programme

Regular preventative press maintenance is often the most overlooked factor in relation to producing quality offset printing on a consistent basis.

Without a scheduled regular roller and blanket maintenance programme, you could struggle to achieve the consistent quality that you need to compete.

Inadequate or no press maintenance means higher costs in waste board, ink, overheads, lost press time and in extreme cases, lost customers.

Regardless of your spend on expensive press technology it is impossible to attain high print quality if your rollers cannot transfer ink effectively due to glazing.

Are you aware of the factors that can cause these profit losses?

Blanket Maintenance Programme

Blankets should be treated weekly to remove any glaze build-up. The following procedure is recommended to ensure highest quality printing performance and maximum blanket life.

Blanket Maintenance & Wash Up

1. Wash blanket to remove wet ink with a Varn water miscible wash such as Varn V60 Plus (KV10-0V6G).

2. Apply Varn Take It Off (KU40-0TFG-01B7) or Varn Revitol (KU40-1RVG-01AF) and leave on blanket for at least 10 minutes.

3. Wash off with a Varn water miscible wash such as Varn V60 Plus (KV10-0V6G).

4. For heavily glazed blankets or light embossing, wipe over with Varn Super Rubber Rejuvenator (KU40-0SRG-01F9).

Blanket Maintenance & Wash Up

1. Wash blanket to remove wet ink with a Varn water miscible wash such as Varn V60 Plus (KV10-0V6G).

Blanket Maintenance & Wash Up

2. Apply Varn Take It Off (KU40-0TFG-01B7) or Varn Revitol (KU40-1RVG-01AF) and leave on blanket for at least 10 minutes.

Blanket Maintenance & Wash Up

3. Wash off with a Varn water miscible wash such as Varn V60 Plus (KV10-0V6G).

Blanket Maintenance & Wash Up

4. For heavily glazed blankets or light embossing, wipe over with Varn Super Rubber Rejuvenator (KU40-0SRG-01F9).

Roller Maintenance Programme

Deep clean roller wash-ups should be performed weekly to maintain the rollers and revitalise their surface.

Special attention should be paid to roller ends to prevent build-up of glaze and/or board fillers.

Roller Maintenance & Wash Up

1. Engage wash up blade to remove wet ink with a Varn roller & blanket wash such as Varn V60 Plus (KV10-0V6G).

2. Disengage wash up blade and apply Take It Off (KU40-0TFG-01B7) (gel) or Revitol (KU40-1RVG-01AF) (liquid).

3. Run in for at least 10 minutes at crawl speed to allow full penetration making sure the rollers remain wet.

4. Engage wash up blade and flush roller train with Varn Penetration Plus (KU40-0PPG-01F9).

5. Repeat Steps 2 & 3 using Varn Calcium Deglazer (KU40-6CDG-01AF).

6. Engage wash up blade and flush roller train with warm water.

7. Clean chrome/ceramic and rubber dampening rollers with Varn MRC (KV10-0FCG-ERF3).

Roller Maintenance & Wash Up

1. Engage wash up blade to remove wet ink with a Varn roller & blanket wash such as Varn V60 Plus (KV10-0V6G).

Roller Maintenance & Wash Up

2. Disengage wash up blade and apply Varn Take It Off (KU40-0TFG-01B7) (gel) or Varn Revitol (KU40-1RVG-01AF) (liquid).

Roller Maintenance & Wash Up

3. Run in for at least 10 minutes at crawl speed to allow full penetration making sure the rollers remain wet.

Roller Maintenance & Wash Up

4. Engage wash up blade and flush roller train with Varn Penetration Plus (KU40-0PPG-01F9).

Roller Maintenance & Wash Up

5. Repeat Steps 2 & 3 using Varn Calcium Deglazer (KU40-6CDG-01AF).

Roller Maintenance & Wash Up

6. Engage wash up blade and flush roller train with warm water.

Roller Maintenance & Wash Up

7. Clean chrome/ceramic and rubber dampening rollers with Varn MRC (KV10-0FCG-ERF3).

Additional Maintenance Tips

These small investments in time and chemistry will pay big dividends in quality printing, profitability and longer equipment life.

Use Varn True Blue (KU40-5TBG-01AF) plate cleaner/ conditioner to clean chrome dampening rollers and dried ink from impression or back cylinders.

Keep your fountain solution circulators free of ink, paper dirt, calcium, fungus, etc., Flush system with Varn Fountclean (KT10-5FCG) regularly.

Don’t wait until performance/quality levels drop off before taking action.

With a regular maintenance programme (x mins per week), performance & quality will remain high.

Flint Group can support you by demonstrating effective press maintenance practices/procedures.

Remember, you can schedule time for a maintenance programme, but you can’t schedule downtime!