Chrome roller keep taking ink how to stop it

[James Mason]

We have a SM-74 Heidelberg 4 color press and our chrome roller is not staying clean its going ink on it and then transfering it to the water pan roller can some one tell me how to stop this.

[Alois Senefelder]

James,

Clean the Chrome Roller with a mild household abrasive cleanser, such as Ajax Cream Cleanser.

Rinse off - THEN gum the roller and allow this gum layer to dry (over night ?)

Use Gum Arabic or a Gum Etch.


Regards, Alois

[Ret Heidelberg Instructor]

Alois is right, you need to de-sensitize the chrome roller by the method he suggests. If you have a product with the designation RC 95, this works well because there is a mild abrasvive in the product.Further to that is it happening to all Chrome rollers or just in one unit? You might be running an ink that is causing this. Easiest way to check is to switch with another unit and see if the problem is still there. You can also try this treatment on the Matte chrome roller also. We were told when instructing by the factory to also instruct the crews at the end of shift overnight shutdown to drop the dampeners onto the plates for a few revolutions. This puts a light coating of dampening solution on the plate and on the Matte chrome. I have left plates on the press overnight without gumming them in because the Hydrophyllic treatment protected the plates and the matte chrome roller. Make sure that the press is washed up well with no residual solvent because it could end up contaminating your fountain solution. Hope this helps.

[kimberfanton]

We use peanut butter (okay the pumice paste) on a 4x4 cotton pad and elbow grease (must reapply this until cotton pad comes back without being black), then rinse with straight fountain solution applied to a clean cotton pad. Takes about 15 minutes unless the rollers are really dirty. If this clean-up is performed at the end of the day definitely gum the rollers. I cleaned my rollers about 6 months ago by this method and have contined to keep my rollers gumed when shut down (rinse it off with fountain solution before engaging in the mornings) and have not had ink sticking to my rollers since. I run a Ryobi 3304.

[inkinveins]

James Mason,
Is this a U.V. phenomenon or does it happen with conventional ink ?

[Kramer68]

On web presses when this happens we just spray plate cleaner on the cleaned up chromes and that seems to do the trick. On bad cases years ago, we would clean up the chromes and apply Petro Gum, let it dry, start up and run.

[Happyprinter]

Alois's method has always worked for us. We use it on our Komori and never have problems.