Dampening Issue on Komori Press

[Bigscottd]

I was wondering if anybody else could help me out.

We have a Komori B2 5 colour press and for the last 2 weeks we have been having a serious issue with the Dampening. Approx 8 weeks ago we changed out fount solution which we had no issues with at all until 2 weeks ago where we had to turn the dampening up to stop scumming we normally run it at 25 and upto 30 on a hot day but at the moment we are running at 50+ which is causing us to chase the colour all the time also its happening on all units not just 1.
Last week we had out techie chap in from our suppliers who put us back on what we ran before but we still have the same issue, yesterday I had Bottcher in who provided us with there 3010+ Fount solution and we still have the same issue.

Im using Kodak Trillion plates which I have for the last 12 months with no issues and we have a Sakurai using the same plates with no issue at all.

Also we have had every roller replaced back in January by Bottcher on the Komori.

If anybody could shed any light on whats we can try to solve it

 

[Kaoticor]

I'm not entirely sure which things changed with the B2 series, but here are some things I would check from working on other lithrones (im sure you have probably already looked at a few of these):

-Double check ratio and setpoints in case someone has messed with them

-Clean circulator filters in case the new solution might have leeched more contaminate in to your tanks and dirtied your filters

-If you have an IR gun make sure the rollers are not running hot

-Temperature of dampening solution

- No one accidentally burned up any of your dampening rollers by accident did they? (I know on the old lithrones you could easily burn op the metering rollers if you were careless, and if a guy did one, there was a good chance he did them all!)

- No one used the wrong chemicals during washdown recently? Probably easiest way to see if anything happened would be to check durometer of one of your dampening systems rubber rollers.




Regards,
-K

 

[GazKL440]

Do you run IPA at all?

We had some issues with Bottcher 300(can't remember the last digit!!) that are similar to yours, and a switch to 3021 cleared everything up nicely.. Previously we were running an ABC/Allied supplied fount called "Greenfount" that worked quite well, but a complete lack of service from that company forced us to switch.

Eight weeks is probably getting close to the point of dropping your tanks and running a flush through the system. We changed our fount approximately 6 weeks ago and I'm noticing a little more crap on the back cylinders and on the two Komori's we run I've noticed a creep in the water settings to keep the print clean (roughly 10% on each press) and we've bumped the pre-damp from low on both presses to medium or high to counter act start up scamming.


Has anything else changed? Run through the settings on your units just in case: it's fairly unlikely that they'd all drop out of setting at roughly the same time.... But stranger things have happened lol and printing presses just love to throw curve balls at ya!

Good luck with it and when you sort it pls post up the cause and remedy, it's always good to have these things filed away

 

[Lukew]

I was wondering if anybody else could help me out.

We have a Komori B2 5 colour press and for the last 2 weeks we have been having a serious issue with the Dampening. Approx 8 weeks ago we changed out fount solution which we had no issues with at all until 2 weeks ago where we had to turn the dampening up to stop scumming we normally run it at 25 and upto 30 on a hot day but at the moment we are running at 50+ which is causing us to chase the colour all the time also its happening on all units not just 1.
Last week we had out techie chap in from our suppliers who put us back on what we ran before but we still have the same issue, yesterday I had Bottcher in who provided us with there 3010+ Fount solution and we still have the same issue.

Im using Kodak Trillion plates which I have for the last 12 months with no issues and we have a Sakurai using the same plates with no issue at all.

Also we have had every roller replaced back in January by Bottcher on the Komori.

If anybody could shed any light on whats we can try to solve it

Have you re set all your rollers again since they were first installed in January? There stipe would have changed by now.
Thats the first place I would start, both damp and ink rollers.

Has you ink changed ?

 

[Lukew]

Do you run IPA at all?
We had some issues with Bottcher 300(can't remember the last digit!!) that are similar to yours, and a switch to 3021 cleared everything up nicely.. Previously we were running an ABC/Allied supplied fount called "Greenfount" that worked quite well, but a complete lack of service from that company forced us to switch.

Gaz, isn't your company fairly large, and or have a fairly high usage of consumables?
Normally a lack of service is offered to small companies, its poor to hear that this happens to larger firms also.

 

[GazKL440]

Gaz, isn't your company fairly large, and or have a fairly high usage of consumables?
Normally a lack of service is offered to small companies, its poor to hear that this happens to larger firms also.

We are not a big company but turn over a lot of work and use a heap of consumables: the 40" and 26" printed over 300,000 impressions over the weekend!!

It seems to have been that the rep left, and everything was then ordered through a central location.... Ordering fountain solution and other chemicals became an exercise in frustration, whereas the Bottcher rep dropped in on a weekly basis without fail.