Old school and/or New press ?

[resumedocket]

Just because the presses have all this automation doesn't make the short term operator a pressman.. it takes time to be able to identify problems and resolve issues caused by variables such as bad water, bad paper ink problems. I work with a bunch of operators and very few accusal pressmen. You can never replace 20 years experience. Trouble shooting skills are the skills that save the day or the job.

 

[blazini]

Wow, newer presses and automation really do get a bad wrap in this forum.

I honestly don't think "automation" really makes the press that much easier to run.

Where I work a less experienced (better yet "less capable") press crews get thrown on the older more "manual" presses. Why?....because they are simple. Who would you pay more money............Somebody who ran an old Hantscho, or a brand new Goss? Troubleshooting an old web press that runs 25,000 IPH is very basic compared to a new press that runs 70,000 IPH, a dirty bearer wipe car ruin your whole day.

While experience is obviously very important "20 years" on the job doesn't mean anything. It's the type of experience that really means anything. For example, you have one guy who spent 20 years in one place, learned what I need to know in 3 and spend 17 watching the clock. Another guy spent 5 years on a sheetfed Komori, 5 years on a Goss newspaper press, and 5 years running commercial web. Who really has more practical experience, the guy with 20 years or the guy with 15?

 

[HecTiK]

You didn't address the press design problem regarding the fact that all presses do not have direct and consistent control on ink feed.

I think you are referring to ink "ductors", but what about ink meters? On the Magnum I run, and an old Hantscho press we have, We have meters, which are steel gritty rollers constistantly touching the ink fountain roller and the rest of the ink train. Thoughts on the meters?

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

I admint to jumping a couple pages of this thread... and I may have said this before. The fact is that some times old knowledge can be an obstacle. If a pressman thinks that he is to compensate for a bad prepress job and not sticking to his/her numbers then there is a violation of the process. The experience is great for finding, correcting or even working around a situation to save the day. (But as is written don't put a fresh patch on an old garment, and the other way round is going to be as bad.)

As long as 20-years breeds humility and the person is teachable, then it is a good thing. Having said that a young person needs to respect the 20-years experience, and sometimes humility is harder to find in young people, especially if their career is too fast ;P

I know a slightly philosophical view... but when it all comes down to it it depends on "fred" "harry" or "jane" at the press

 

[Deleted member 16349]

I think you are referring to ink "ductors", but what about ink meters? On the Magnum I run, and an old Hantscho press we have, We have meters, which are steel gritty rollers constistantly touching the ink fountain roller and the rest of the ink train. Thoughts on the meters?

As far as I know, these metering rollers do not touch the ink fountain roller. Please check your system to confirm.

The one that I was familiar with was on a 40" wide Chambon web press and it had a gap of about 0.004' to 0.006" between the ink fountain roller and the knurled metering roller. We called it a continuous ductor.

A metering roller system suffers the same problem and probably is worse than the conventional ductor in consistency of ink transfer. It is usually on higher speed presses due to the difficulty in having a ductor move back and forth so fast.

I like continuous metering since it puts ink into the roller train evenly and because it does not put mechanical shocks into the roller train which can disturb the print. I have a patent that corrects the inconsistent ink transfer problem and provides a almost continuous ink transfer condition without the mechanical shock.