Calcium Problem

[dwanehollands]

Thanks to everyone for their input!

Thanks to everyone for their input!

Thanks to everyone for their input. I haven't been able to get into the factory for very long in the last couple of days or so, Press operator was putting new blankets and packing on today because the current blanets are getting a bit long in the tooth.

Thanks to jbeniston for all your input. The comprehensive response was full of real gems that I'm going to turn into a bit of a case study/press blue print together with the information from others regarding increasing the water window, critical areas of concern.

I don't know if anyone else checked jbeniston's profile, but he's a print instructor for Man Roland!

Thanks to all. Once we've run some dry solids I'll post back our results.

 

[fredfrank]

Setting form 2 & 3

Setting form 2 & 3

Just a quick hint: when I need to check ink form to distributor on # 2 & 3, I simply back the adjustments off on 1 & 4 by three full turns. This takes those two out of contact, and allows you to see the stripe from 2 & 3 on their distributor rollers. Then, you can simply turn the 1 & 4 adjusters three turns back in and they should be back where they started.

That way you don't have to take any rollers out of the press and get your hands all inked up. I don't know what kind of press you are running, but I'm talking about a Heidelberg SM-52.

 

[turbotom1052]

calcium carbonate buildup in the rollers are a common problem these days as many paper manufacturers have gone to different formulas when making their product. alkaline based papers are often chock full of calcium carbonate that will leach out of the paper and ultimately travel up into your rollers via the blanet to the plate to the ink rollers and even into your fountain solution.
seeings how youve never done a calcium rinse id suggest doing numerous ones to start with. any good commercially available calcium rinse will do the job but if youve got really big buildup id say to do at least 4 or 5 repeated calcium rinses. once youve gotten all traces of it out of the rollers id suggest at least weekly calcium rinses to keep it from building up. if its really bad you may have to pull out your rollers and clean them by hand. good luck