No More Messy Stops and Starts

A Daetwyler Analyze, Design, Implement, Measure Success Story

When presses create excessive mess, it leads to a lot of unnecessary waste – of substrate, ink, and especially time. Finding what’s causing the problem isn’t always so simple though, unless you have a trusted expert like Daetwyler on your side like our gift wrap printing client…

Before Daetwyler

Ensure quality output for the customer and profitability for the pressroom

Long-run print jobs rely on consistent performance with minimal stops in order to ensure quality output for the customer and profitability for the pressroom. So, constantly stopping to clean up drips or address potential cylinder damage was not an acceptable option for our client running seven gravure presses dedicated to gift wrap printing. Blades were wearing out faster than they should. Prints were hazy and streaked. And, the time it was taking to start, stop, and restart was becoming a major issue to getting projects completed.

How Analyze, Design, Implement, Measure Made a Difference

Perform a thorough equipment analysis

Daetwyler went right to the root of the problem with a full pressroom evaluation conducted over a period of two days. Our experts focused on the main components of the issue-related areas as well as the overall press set up and condition. It was determined that the main culprit for most of the problems were old, damaged doctor blade holders. Almost all were missing bolts and had damage to the bed area which led to blades being wavy instead of flat. To compensate for these issues the pressmen were forced to apply high amounts of pressure to the blades. The high pressure was causing the blades to wear prematurely creating haze and streaks in the print.

After Daetwyler

Increased throughput and shorter washing cycles

In addition to replacing the worn-out blade holders for basic press set-up, Daetwyler also designed a new quick-change holder for the presses, trained the press crews on set up procedures and usage, then instructed the make-ready teams on care and maintenance. The managers continued to track downtime and blade changes after changes were implemented and saw a huge decrease.

Less frequent blade changes, plus eliminated paper and ink waste saved the company $150,000 in material costs. Cylinder repairs from wear also were cut by 75%, which was another $50,000 in savings. Reduced downtime added yet another $75,000 to the company’s bottom line for an annual cost savings of $275,000… and the print quality is better too.