Is there any solution to the spray powder mess?

[Hagg Press]

I have been appointed to head a new cleaning effort in our 53,000 square foot building and the second thing I have my eye on after throwing needless garbage away is the spray powder. We have a Komori Super Perfector that goes through a lot of it and seems to spread it all over the shop. Before we had our new pressroom built in 1996, we had about 12 Air King air filters mounted to the ceiling to clean the air. I guess the story goes that when these were all on, they would move so much air that they would dry out the fountains on the presses. They were all taken down and I had the duty of selling them. This was right when I started working here about 6 years ago. Ever since, our building is getting worse and worse by the day. It's in our computers, it's on our rafters, it's in our bathrooms. It's just EVERYWHERE. Short of calling Komori to look for a solution, I was wondering if anyone knows the answer to this problem or if they have any creative ideas to keep the spray powder from spreading all over the shop. One guy here said he knew of a place that had a vacuum system in the floor at the delivery end of their presses but I'd have to see that to believe it. Also, it's a little late in the game for us to do something like that! Any help is appreciated!

 

[Disappointed]

An extract system near the source could work, a duct at each side of the delivery maybe?

Sounds like a hell of a lot of powder though?

Are there health aspects here as well??

 

[turbotom1052]

a few suggestions. The obvious would be minimum powdering. this could be achieved best by making sure your inks are strongly pigmented requiring you to run less. In addition you can fine tune your drying. Also be sure that your rich blacks do not exceed the recommended percentages. Im guessing when you say super perfecter your talking bout a 4 over 4 or a 5 over 5 press. You might be better served by running a lesser amount of a larger micron powder. This will take some experimenting but you've got to be willing to push the limits of the process. There is the possibility that you guys are running the powder at its minimum already and what you perceive as excessive powder is actually the right amount of powder and that its eventual buildup over time is a by product of the process. Things are going to get dirty with powder in a pressroom environment and surrounding areas.
I will say that the biggest reason for trying to limit the amount of powder for me running a straight press would be to avoid too much powder on the back up. Seeings how your making just a single pass through the press its within reason that as cornish mentioned that your guys are just trying to avoid the fallout of jobs that in the past have offset!!! I must say that if i were running a 4 over 4 press and didn't have to worry about powder problems when backing a job up i would run a healthy dose of powder if for no other reason than to be able to run my loads up a little higher.

 

[Cornishpastythighs]

I would ask Komori if every super perfector owner is going through the same issues as you or is it that you are using excess powder because maybe at some point you had some offsetting and now the pressman are making sure it doesnt happen again by cranking up the powder.
I would also get a health check done on your spray unit, maybe its malfunctioning.
good luck

 

[shivasankar]

Another option to reduce spray powder would be to add an IR Dryer at the end. Bit expensive, but you could reduce the powder usage by 50%.

 

[jbeniston]

You do not have a whole lot of choices. Conventional inks, 4 over 4 or 5 over 5, wet ink against wet ink in the pile, what is the operator supposed to do. There is not much choice. You could spend the money and convert to U.V. Then you can turn the sprayer off for ever. I do not think IR will do it for you.
Otherwise you just need to get some really good extraction in your pressroom or just keep cleaning

 

[Coastline]

One thing to try would be a more efficient spraypowder, that would allow you to dramatically reduce your spraypowder usage and excessive build up in the surrounding areas.
ABC Allied produce a spraypowder that is treated with a special coating to give a better flow, meaning that you can cut it right back compared to the other major spraypowders on the market.
This obviously will not completely solve the problem, but it could drastically reduce it.

The video below shows the increased flow rate:

 

[rsands]

do you know what rating it has in terms of fineness of the powder? there are different grades of powder and a super fine powder has to be heavily sprayed on some presses. If its as bad as your saying something is wrong

 

[Hagg Press]

Thanks guys! I'm going to take all of your suggestions and see if we can't figure this mess out. I'll report back later!

 

[Akumaownz]

Make sure you are running the right screen ruling for the type of paper you are printing on. Don't run at 200# job on very porous paper otherwise too much ink will be going down and you will need all the powered to stop set off when perfecting. Also look at reducing your total ink weight to under 300%. You prepress guys should be able to help you set this up.

 

[D Ink Man]

Another thing that will help is your ink series. May I please ask which ink series you use for process? It takes a very special ink formula to provide resistance to build up on the back cylinders and get the setting, drying that is needed on your printed work. Most of all the off the shelf 4/C process ink offerings do not have the properties to perfect. A properly formulated ink series will dramatically help you reduce the spray powder and end your woes.

Also, what's your mix of stocks run; coated vs. uncoated vs. silks/satins? And how important is stay open time to your press crews. How long do your current inks take to skin? Providing answers here can help you moving forward.

D