Consumables
Austrian Printer Invests in Full Range of Baldwin Process Automation Technology
Monday 01. September 2008 - Austrian printer, Leykam Lets Print, has equipped five new web offset presses with a full range of industry-leading process automation technology from Baldwin.
This includes Baldwins ProTech CW automatic brush blanket cleaning, WebTack in-line gluing and WebCatcher systems. Four of the presses are in use at the groups Neudörfl factory and the latest press, an 80-page manroland Lithoman IV, has just been commissioned. The fifth press – a new 48-page Lithoman IV – has been installed at the groups Slovenian plant.
The 55 million Euro investment has been made by Leykam Lets Print following a major fire in 2006. In addition to the 2,250 mm wide 80-page Lithoman IV, the first in Austria with this capacity, the presses at the Neudörfl site consist of a 64-page and 72-page Lithoman IV and a 16-page Rotoman. Leykam Lets Print is Austrias largest magazine printer, with around 570 employees split between premises in Graz, Neudörfl, Müllendorf and a site near Maribor in Slovenia. The group has customers spread throughout Austria, as well as in Germany, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
Peter Unterscheider, works manager at the Neudörfl factory, believes that automating press functionality is the only way to achieve maximum productivity. “I feel brush cleaning technology remains the most effective means of automatically cleaning blankets on high speed web offset presses,” he says. “Apart from two old 48-page presses, we have Baldwins brush cleaning systems on all our presses.
“With uncoated stock we normally achieve 80,000 impressions before cleaning blankets and with coated papers this figure is around 50,000. Brushes and any defective bearings are changed only during the annual maintenance inspection, otherwise everything works without any problems at all,” says Mr Unterscheider.
Baldwins ProTech CW is the newest version of the highly successful ProTech automated brush cleaning system for commercial web blankets. The only consumables required by ProTech CW are washing agents and water. During operation, a long lasting, lateral-change, brush roller rotates continuously in each cleaning unit. A new spray nozzle system disperses cleaning agent and water evenly on the brush, and the paper and ink residues that have built up across the width of the blankets are quickly removed. The ProTech CW control system delivers a full range of cleaning programmes that can be specifically tailored to different operations.
According to Peter Unterscheider there were several features which made the company choose Baldwins WebTack gluing system, including the precision of the adhesive application, the ease of use and the low set-up and conversion costs when switching between applying or not applying adhesive. The predefined and individually programmable glue patterns allow fast, waste-saving make-ready and give the option of remote motorized adjustment of the applicator heads, both horizontally (laterally) and vertically (towards the web). These settings can be made via corresponding links to either the press control station or the touch screen panel on the WebTack console.
The WebTack applicator heads have electromagnetic valves with a high switching frequency, and are controlled with extreme precision, so the intermittent application of glue remains geometrically accurate across the whole job, regardless of changes in printing speed. Application in contact with the paper web and the use of relatively high-viscosity glue mean that WebTack equipment can achieve consistent, precise glue lines, even at the highest speeds. WebTack satellite units are responsible for the direct feed of glue, softening systems, rinse water and power to the applicator heads. An environmentally-friendly glue supply is available via large bag-in-the-box 1,000 kg containers.
The third item of Baldwin equipment at Leykam Lets Print is its highly successful WebCatcher S18 system, which prevents web breaks causing damage to press parts. The WebCatcher S18 is effective at web speeds up to 18 metres per second and is designed to allow normal production to be resumed after minimal downtime following a web break. On a heatset web offset line the WebCatcher equipment is installed between the last printing unit and the hot air dryer.
An integrated, motorized, remote controlled sensor monitors the web continuously during production. The laser diode technology incorporated within the sensor ensures a short overall response time. If the sensor detects a web break, the WebCatcher acts immediately. A pneumatically operated trolley crossbar in the WebCatcher pushes the trailing web, which is stabilised by an air knife, on to a spinning catcher roller. The WebCatcher guides the retained paper to the floor in front of the dryer, from where it can be removed easily after restarting the press.
“You have to distinguish where the web tears,” says Peter Unterscheider. “If this happens in the dryer or in the immediate vicinity of the dryer, then the WebCatcher is almost 100 per cent effective. We can see why this system has been a great success for Baldwin.”