Heidelberg ink duct foil, an advantage or disadvantage?

[aqazi81]

Just curious, what press operators around the world think of Heidelberg ink duct/fountain foil, is it an advantage or disadvantage?

 

[DerekMTL]

I have worked on a Mitsubishi 5F , where we never had fountain liners and I have worked on a Heidelberg XL 105 , and more recently the XL 106. I find the liners to have an advantage in the fact that you are saving wash up time. Also more cost affective in the fact that you are saving cloth material / rags to wash the fountains. Just be sure that the press guys install them "Kink" free , as the uniformity of the ink transfer will be compromised.

I similar item has been created for the wash up pans as well. Heidelberg sells "wash up and go" liners that you can put inside the pan. No more need to line the bottom with rags or cloth. Simply pull out the tray , discard and away you go.

Hope this helps.

 

[aqazi81]

Yes it does help in cleaning but what about the accuracy of the ink zone opening during the long run?

 

[turbotom1052]

the liners are an advantage when it comes to washup time. Ive found that if you run stay open ink and leave the liners in more than a few days then the material starts to either wear out or compress. After a few days they become thin to were you may have a hard time running a very light fountain.

 

[aqazi81]

After a few days they become thin to were you may have a hard time running a very light fountain.

A good practice is to pull the foil with the bolt in the center of the ink duct, it helps a lot. But again you have to readjust the ink zones from the console.

 

[Mike Herndon]

We call them ink fountain liners. The manual we have for our sm102 refers to the removable liner as a "ink fountain liner" but then refers to the bar the liner hooks into as a "foil clamping bar". The liners are an advantage as long as you maintain the two sided tape, clear tape and weather striping for the ink keys underneath the liner. A decent operator should be able to dip out 5 lbs of ink, remove the fountain blocks, old foil and prep the fountain with a new foil in 5 minutes or so.

aqazi81 is correct the manual refers to this procedure as "re-tensioning" the foil, few people do this. I've seen where a pressman is on a long run, or the 4cp ink has been in the press for 24+ hours or more, and they can no longer control their color. The keys are not responding to changes as they should or the sheet scanner/ Image Control type device is making large ink key moves.

Downward spiral ensues, color shifts, "trouble shooting" starts and off we go......

I look at their ink fountain, re-tension the foil by slightly loosening the fountain blocks and turning the center nut two flats, no more issue. The operator sees immediately the ink keys are distributing ink as they should.

Our manual states foils should be replaced after 300,000 impressions, we never have run lengths that long but 4c process could stay in the press for over 300,000 impressions between jobs.

Basic position= center bolt/screw undone
Pull position= screw/bolt fully turned in, ink fountain liner is pulled back, then as you run you can loosen the blocks slightly and just turn the screw/bolt out as needed to move the liner forward.

Other mistakes- metal ink knives or should I say improper use of metal ink knives cutting the foil then the protective tape underneath, ink leaks into the key, key no longer works.

We use a printing plate cut to size to help protect the area not protected by the fountain tape and use a very light coat of rollerlube on the fountain block and inside of the block where it contact the ink ball. By doing so we've found the ink blocks last 4x as long.

Mike

 

[Ret Heidelberg Instructor]

Mike, I couldn't have said it any better. A lot of operators do not stretch out the foil. We used to do it after a few hours of running a long run. I have seen them wound in tight right from the start of the run with no room for further adjustment. After market foils were also a problem. They may look the same and feel the same but they don't quite work as well as Heidelberg ones.