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Laserclean Training Video for The ALCS 1000-2300 S(F) Systems
Video Transcript
Welcome to the next generation of cleaning. The ALCS series. A fully automated laser cleaning machine to make your life easy and to achieve the highest quality in printing. In this video we will show you how to install, and safely use your ALCS machine. Upon arrival, your ALCS system will be packed in one of these crates. The beautiful thing with these crates is you can open them on the top, and on the sides! And, once you have opened the crate, please make sure there is no shipping damage on the machine. The machine can be easily installed with a forklift. However, ensure that you use some foam or other material to protect from damages under the machine. And, especially ensure that the fans, which are here in the middle of the machine will not be damaged by the forklift. So, lift for example – here and here. The same goes for protecting the front panel of the machine. Now when your machine is in place, it is time to level the machine. We do this by taking 3 measurement points – first one in the middle of the machine up here; the second measurement point on the top cabinet; and the third one inside the machine, on the translation rail. And when all three points are properly levelled, you must fix the stands at the bottom of the machine, and you do this very easily by tightening the bolts – 4 on this side and 2 on the left side, and then the machine is ready for use. Now is time to do some safety checks which we can best do with help of the checklist provided in the manual. First, if we haven’t done so, we make a general inspection of the machine to see if there is any deviations, scratches, damages or otherwise. Secondly, we start with check of the screws on the main panels. If these are all fixed properly, which is the case, we move on with a check if the front panel and the door to the filter unit can open and close properly; are fixed well. And then we move on to a quick check inside the machine. We make sure that the roller support operates easily, like this. We check if the laser gun is properly fixed and then we make a quick check of the stickers – A Class 1 laser product on front, the laser triangle on the backside of the machine, and another laser warning on the laser gun below. And lastly, we check if there is a CE notification on the backside of the machine. Now, if there is any deviation, please contact your supplier.
Welcome to this chapter on how to operate the ALCS Laser Cleaning system. Laser light is invisible to the eye. However, it is harmful upon exposure. And that is why the ALCS laser cleaning systems are operated with several safety features. For example, if someone would open the cabinet during operation, automatically the laser stops. Also, when the roller turns but would somehow stop, the laser stops automatically. Inside the machine, we find the laser gun and roller support system. Ahead of the laser gun smartly combines the aperture to the laser beam and to the integrated extraction system for process dust, fumes and vapors. This ensures trouble-free operation, the best cleaning results, and increases the overall lifetime of the machine. Extraction system includes a three-level filter unit and ensures an emission-free environment. All ALCS systems can clean both solid rollers and sleeves. And they are very easy to adjust to the length of the roller. Let’s connect the machine to the grid. Once the power is on, we can switch on the machine. We start with the main switch, right here, and then right away the key, up here, to the right. This is the logo starting up. Afterwards it will initialize, and this may take a minute. When the initializing part is done, the machine will ask for a reset, which we will see shortly. Now the machine is ready for the reset. Here you see the blue line indicating, and here the blue button. Push it once – machine performs the reset, and now it says, ‘System Ready, press here to begin’. The interface presents you with intuitive buttons, and information for safe and efficient machine operation. Thanks to the built-in camera as you can see here, we can see inside the machine during operation. The progress bar at the top shows you the cleaning progress and also the estimated cleaning time. Here below, you can see the status of the filter. If it needs replacement, it will blink in red. Here below is some space for warning messages, or status messages, and the current status of the machine is displayed here below. It says, ‘System ready, press here to begin’. Also, here you can see the start and stop buttons. When idle the parameters of the machine can be changed from the settings menu. In the settings menu, you can change the parameters roller diameter, roller length, but also the surface speed, which is how fast you wish the roller to turn and the step/rotation speed, which is how fast you wish the laser to pass across the surface of the roller. Be aware that manual cleaning or not using the approved pre-defined cleaning settings for your rollers, require further operator training and depending on roller type and pollution, you must balance cleaning speeds with cleaning efficiency. Estimated cleaning time will be displayed here. You can also choose whether the machine pauses after a first cleaning cycle, so you can determine if further cleaning is required. The machine is designed for efficient cleaning in only one cleaning cycle. To choose the right cleaning settings, it is important to take in account the interval of cleaning for your rollers. Setting Auto repeat to ON, will let the machine do another pass automatically, hereby bringing the laser gun back to the starting position. It is recommended to choose cleaning interval and cleaning settings such that only one pass is needed. Because this makes cleaning fastest, and ensures you keep your rollers in a perfect clean condition. Through the main screen it is possible to change the energy of the laser during machine operation. However, this is not recommended to avoid uneven cleaning results. So, of course you change the setting of the laser power, but you do this before or between cleaning cycles, and not during cleaning cycles. So, if we move back to settings, we see the button ‘Energy edit’, and here we can also set it to ‘Energy fixed’, which avoids accidental changes. In the settings screen, you can also load recipes, over here, which are predefined cleaning settings or roller tables for faster setting the right cleaning parameters for your rollers. Later, we will discuss this in more detail. Here on the left side is a button to reset the software. All functions and values will be reset to the standard settings. When we back out of this menu, we are again presented with the main screen. So, I suggest, let’s place a roller and take it for a spin! So, we open the cabinet. Here we see the roller support systems. Generally, we keep this one in place, although it is also possible to move it. This one we move, more-or-less, to the adjusted length. We take the sleeve… So, when the sleeve is in place, we close the cabinet and the machine has a sensor, so it automatically detects if it is closed or not. Otherwise, it won’t operate. Here we can choose in the upper-corner recipe only, which means it takes one of the pre-programmed cleaning programs. Roller & Recipe – that is one of the pre-programmed cleaning programs, plus one of your pre-programmed rollers specifically. We can do a manual cleaning, with all options free, all settings free. We can let the machine automatically check the diameter but not the length. Of course, there is a sensor that it will stop at the end, but there is no cleaning time indicator. Or we can do Auto All where the machine will automatically detect the diameter and the length to measure it upfront and start automatically, which is the program we choose. We only have to put, here is the roller loaded. Process roller? Yes! Now it’s going to measure the length.
We can see that the machine is processing, which means it is cleaning the roller. We can see it by the yellow light indicator. On the screen, there is a stop button. However, we do not recommend to use the stop button in a regular cleaning process, because this might give an uneven cleaning result. This is the emergency stop button. It should only be used in case of an emergency, and it will automatically stop the machine. Also, if someone for some reason would open the cabinet, the machine will stop automatically. So, as we can see now, the roller is ready. We can inspect the roller. Perfectly cleaned. Now, let’s have a closer look at the Recipe and Roller tables, which will offer you easier operating of the machine. It also prevents that an operator accidentally chooses the wrong cleaning settings, and for example uses too much or too little laser energy, potentially influencing the safety of the roller and the cleaning quality. Within the settings panel, we can here press Recipes. First, we were working in Auto All. Here is Roller and Recipe – here we can choose a Recipe. Pre-programmed recipes are – Delicate, Standard and Intense. However, you can easily define many more cleaning programs. For example, for very heavy pollution. Let’s choose ‘Delicate’. Select, ‘Load the selected recipe?’ Yes. From here we can also add a roller. We can also do this from this screen. For example, we choose, ‘Roller 1’, where diameter and length are pre-defined. Select. Yes. Now you can see that Roller 1, and the Delicate cleaning program are selected. Now we only need to load the roller, and close the cover and press start. All the recipes and roller tables can be stored in the machine on a SD card.
To ensure the best cleaning performance, it is important to maintain the machine regularly. No expensive contract is needed; however, a few things must be checked regularly. Firstly, before starting any maintenance work, switch off the machine. Then, when we open the cabinet and we take a closer look at the part with the optics, there is one element to clean. Over time there is a build-up of dust, and they deposit on to the optics, which reduces the effectiveness of the laser. The optics are equipped with a shield – the shield protects from residues landing on the optics. It is easily taken out as a drawer by turning the black knob anti-clockwise. To clean, we recommend using a few drops of iso-propanol or methanol alcohol. We use a soft tissue, or in this case, a special lens cleaning tissue. As the shield protects the optics, only run the machine with the shield installed. Not using the included shield can cause damage to the machine. The colored windows of the focusing sensor should be cleaned on a monthly basis, or when the overall performance of the machine is reduced. On the right side of the machine is a built-in filter unit to collect particles of dust and dirt. To access the filter unit, we can open this door with a key. When the filter needs replacement, it will be visible on the indicator on the display. To open the filter box, you can use two latches on the front and back. The filter consists of three different filters. There is a top filter; this one, a small coarse filter. Right below, a middle filter. And then there is a larger box – the active-carbon filter. So, when the display indicator shows that the filter needs replacement, you typically replace the top filter, which collects most of the dirt and dust. It is good practice to change the middle filter and active-carbon filter every fifth time when you replace the top filter. The filter mats on the cooling fans at the bottom of the front panel should be inspected and cleaned on a monthly basis. All filters can be disposed of as non-hazardous waste.
