Long Sheet Fed Perfector Presses- Questions?

[D Ink Man]

What are some of the pitfalls anticipated when a printer has a long perfector press or is deciding to purchase one?

Is one press manufacturer better than another for perfectors? Is so, please explain the reasons why this may be so, Press Brand X vs. Press Brand XX, as example.

Are there any important ink qualities that need to be inherent to a 4/C series that might improve the chances for success?

I am trying to learn through replies and experiences encountered in the field.

Thank you. D Ink Man

 

[Weaver]

As far as pitfalls I can't really say there is things like grit your teeth or regrets. With a long perfector you must maintain it,"keep it clean". Long perfectors eat work like kids and candy or atleast ours does. When you go long perfector you will never want to go back to straight printing again. Once you pass the learning curve or the nervousness of running high speed perfecting its great.
Is one better than others I have to say yes. You get what you pay for! The way they are designed to perfect, ease of maintenance, difficulty in just basic operation, and service. I am a Heidelberg operator and I love it. I wasnt there at the KBA testing but heard it had some slight marking issues where the Heidelberg didn't.
As far as ink set some one else will have to lead you on this one the only thing you have to be careful in my opinion is putting to much drier in the inks.

 

[Mike Herndon]

As far as pitfalls I can't really say there is things like grit your teeth or regrets. With a long perfector you must maintain it,"keep it clean". Long perfectors eat work like kids and candy or atleast ours does. When you go long perfector you will never want to go back to straight printing again. Once you pass the learning curve or the nervousness of running high speed perfecting its great.
Is one better than others I have to say yes. You get what you pay for! The way they are designed to perfect, ease of maintenance, difficulty in just basic operation, and service. I am a Heidelberg operator and I love it. I wasnt there at the KBA testing but heard it had some slight marking issues where the Heidelberg didn't.
As far as ink set some one else will have to lead you on this one the only thing you have to be careful in my opinion is putting to much drier in the inks.

I agree 100% with everything Weaver said. Long perfectors are a pressman's dream- virgin stock all the time, one pass and done. We have two 6 color perfectors with coaters and run A LOT of 4/2 + coat work on them. They have some limitations with perfecting and marking due to the deep dish guide pan, coater and dryer turbulence. We just finished the install of an sm102 8 color perfector with s module, no coater OR dryer, yep no dryer. This is the best combo for mark less perfecting IMO. The 8 color press simply eats up the work and anything we throw at it. We're running everything between 12 and 13 iph- gloss stock 70-8pt with decent coverage on both sides- no marking at least none you can see. Key points:

Guide pan- we clean it everyshift, sometimes every other job depending on coverage. Takes 5 minutes to wipe it down
Impression cylinder jackets- take care of them, keep them clean.
Gutters- got to have them, one in the middle and one on each side
UCR- got to use it. If we have a marking issue it usually falls back to prepress not using UCR and 4cp screen builds are too saturated.

Keep the press clean! These simple things and a few other "tricks" and the press will gobble up the 4/4 work.

Ink will make or break a perfector. Stay open inks that never skin will not work at least not for us. The ink we use is a high solids hard dry quicker setting ink but it still stays open up to 24 hours. We use these with no drama.

Mike