Tales of breakage!

[GazKL440]

Ok here's something a little different... usually these discussions are centered around repairing or dealing with issues that printing presses throw at us.. but its time for a little entertainment.. lets talk about the times when it seemed the world had ended, when you had to make THAT call to the manager, then the press engineer, regarding the "strange clunking noise" or "the paper goes in but does not come out" or "it went BAAANG GRRRRUUUNNNCH CLUNK and stopped.."

Ive seen a few big smashes, some human error, some metal fatigue, some just strange kind of "well i'll be f**cked" situations... and at the time your heart stops your stomach sinks and the world gets very very heavy... but once fixed and all is well they are times you can have a bit of a laugh about....

Most recent for me was runnin a Roland Rekord, a press that was ok for its time but well outdated by the time i got to work with it and had been round the clock a few times.. it was a 4/0 or 2/2 configuration, and one friday evening with around 1000 runs left in a job before weekend washup it dropped a tumbler gripper thru the 2nd unit, creating some interesting crunch baang grrrrrr noises and damaging 1 impression cylinder, 2 plate cylinders and 2 blanket cylinders.. we were already starting on a friday arvo beers and were somewhat... dismayed.... as it turned out a tumbler gripper had simply worn out and chosen that moment to fall thru so no one to blame... but its still not a good call to make to the boss to tell him "the machine boss she is broke!!" The press was down for about a week getting repairs and a new jacket fitted to the impression cyl... so it wasn't the end of the world just a bit of a fright!

So throw in your stories about the memorable days that stand out amongst the general "groundhog" days; the days when it all went wrong...

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Don't know if it qualifies, being a CTP and not a "real machine" like a press, it's external drum so at least the plates are wrapped around the righht way
I start it up one monday morning and it sounds like the beer-can recycling unit in the supermarket :s
Friday had been my day off, and the operator had aborted a job and turned the machine off, with a plate still on the drum. In the coldstart test the plate clamps are tested well they let the palte go, and first attempt at rotating the drum proved to be one fine aluminium crunching operation. (I did get telephone support to fix it so it wasn't as bad as it first seemed, but it did stress me out, a little ;p)

 

[Paultheprinter]

first major issue happened to happen on christmas eve about ten years ago, last job of the year and during m/r the blanket had a ding which showed up on the job so i unclamped the blanket and and inched it round, at this point it went a tad loose and i guessed the front clamp had popped but usually they stay in the nip and come round ok, this time was a tad differnet and the blanket clamp must have came forward and when i inched round there was a clunk and a baaaadoing as a bearing went pop, after ten minuites of panic i took the walk of shame into the bosses office to break the bad news. cant remember how much damage was done but i know it was over 1000. so not to bad althouch i did go back the next year a bit sheepish.

The best one i know of which was an accident was an operator who i work with now, hed fed a 17mm spanner through the first impression cylinder through the transfers and then through unit 2 on impression and into the delivery, the engineer could not believe that it was possible to happen but im sure the boss could believe it when he got the invoice for the cylinder repair.

The last one is about a labourer who got short changed by the boss in his wages, he lost the plot and smashed a forklift into the side of a sm102 and doing a fair bit of damage then walkeed out happy as larry knowing hes got his moneys worth

Paul

 

[GazKL440]

The best one i know of which was an accident was an operator who i work with now, hed fed a 17mm spanner through the first impression cylinder through the transfers and then through unit 2 on impression and into the delivery, the engineer could not believe that it was possible to happen but im sure the boss could believe it when he got the invoice for the cylinder repair.


Paul[/QUOTE]

how on earth did it get all the way thru?? machine must have a high torque engine!! Ive seen Akiyama's stop dead with a few sheets on the blankets caused by failed cam followers.. but to get a 17mm spanner thru.. thats art!! Before i started running the rekord mentioned in the thread starter one of the operators did exactly the same thing with a blanket release as you did and the thing was locked solid for 2 days.. the scariest thing ive seen is a production mgr with no idea of what he is doing wedging a 10 foot pinch bar between the cylinders to try and free it up.. madness...

Lucas... a machine is a machine be it a full house press or a processor, and the sinking feeling you get when it makes noises that its not supposed to is EXACTLY the same

 

[maxon]

Old Optronics colorsetter some 10 years ago, the operator used to seal the film with tape for extra safety on all four sides but vacuum failed, shattered the B1 size film into thousands of pieces was like the the building roof went down.
That was after me spending two days cleaning all debris in the machine belly, a mouse chew most of the cables including the wires from the laser shutter he probably suffered like hell from indigestion because I found him dead somewhere beneath the power supply. After cleaning all that mess and recabling the machine I was happy to see it fixed...

 

[Mike Herndon]

Most spectacular jam I’ve ever seen happened around 10 years ago. The operator (I’m not even going to disrespect the trade and call this guy a pressmen) was running an older 4 color 102sm trying to be a hero. This guy was one of the worst press operators I’ve ever had the displeasure of working with. One of the many things he did to”speed” up his production was purposely not set the mechanical double sheet detector. His theory was he would notice the doubles in the delivery and pull them out…we all know that does not work. Well on this particular night he was running an 80# uncoated sheet at around 11.5 per hour, pretty good for an old press. He had done his usual and disabled the double sheet detector and while he was adding ink had a MASSIVE wrap up in the 4th unit. I’m talking around 30 sheets between the impression and blanket cylinder. The force was so great when the press came to an immediate halt it shook the entire pressroom. The amount of damage was catastrophic, blanket, impression and plate cylinders smashed, side frame damaged, and massive damage in the delivery. The energy was great enough to break the bearing bolts in half, something the Heidelberg Engineer had never seen.

Press was down months while the delivery and 4th unit were removed for repair. Total cost just under $100,000 dollars. I still have a picture of the shattered bearing bolt up in my office as a reminder to new hires what happens when things are done half a$$.

And no the guy did not loose his job; he worked for us for another 4 years!

 

[Albert Noel]

the fact that they let him keep his job after that is mind blowing to me.

Most spectacular jam I’ve ever seen happened around 10 years ago. The operator (I’m not even going to disrespect the trade and call this guy a pressmen) was running an older 4 color 102sm trying to be a hero. This guy was one of the worst press operators I’ve ever had the displeasure of working with. One of the many things he did to”speed” up his production was purposely not set the mechanical double sheet detector. His theory was he would notice the doubles in the delivery and pull them out…we all know that does not work. Well on this particular night he was running an 80# uncoated sheet at around 11.5 per hour, pretty good for an old press. He had done his usual and disabled the double sheet detector and while he was adding ink had a MASSIVE wrap up in the 4th unit. I’m talking around 30 sheets between the impression and blanket cylinder. The force was so great when the press came to an immediate halt it shook the entire pressroom. The amount of damage was catastrophic, blanket, impression and plate cylinders smashed, side frame damaged, and massive damage in the delivery. The energy was great enough to break the bearing bolts in half, something the Heidelberg Engineer had never seen.

Press was down months while the delivery and 4th unit were removed for repair. Total cost just under $100,000 dollars. I still have a picture of the shattered bearing bolt up in my office as a reminder to new hires what happens when things are done half a$$.

And no the guy did not loose his job; he worked for us for another 4 years!

 

[GazKL440]

nah you would be suprised what some bosses would put up with for reliable staff, even if they are shit house printers.. i remember a bloke who kept his job over 8 years of destroying akiyamas, and still work with another who is desperately afraid of grease guns.. and he will go home if there is no work on rather than do maintenance.. The first guy still holds the record for most sheets jammed in an akiyama, with 9 sheets folded and jammed in first unit so bad that it had to have cylinder bearings removed to free it up.. and the other guy replaced oscillator cams on an aki and straight up left out the grease point... saying "you dont need to worry about that"... WTF??? one of these 2 still work here but at least the bloke still here is a good printer just a little lazy... the other bloke is gone but i used to offend him by unloading his stacks and reloading when taking over from him hehe

 

[akiyama_king]

nah you would be suprised what some bosses would put up with for reliable staff, even if they are shit house printers.. i remember a bloke who kept his job over 8 years of destroying akiyamas, and still work with another who is desperately afraid of grease guns.. and he will go home if there is no work on rather than do maintenance.. The first guy still holds the record for most sheets jammed in an akiyama, with 9 sheets folded and jammed in first unit so bad that it had to have cylinder bearings removed to free it up.. and the other guy replaced oscillator cams on an aki and straight up left out the grease point... saying "you dont need to worry about that"... WTF??? one of these 2 still work here but at least the bloke still here is a good printer just a little lazy... the other bloke is gone but i used to offend him by unloading his stacks and reloading when taking over from him hehe

Hey, most printers over here do not even know what a grease gun is, pfff and cleaning ink ducts are an anual event lol
ill be honest in my days as a young akiyama printer id forget to set the 2 sheet detector when coming down from board (we mainly ran one type of stock continuously) and on a few occasions id forget to change pressures when moving upto board

 

[User Name]

first major issue happened to happen on christmas eve about ten years ago, last job of the year and during m/r the blanket had a ding which showed up on the job so i unclamped the blanket and and inched it round, at this point it went a tad loose and i guessed the front clamp had popped but usually they stay in the nip and come round ok, this time was a tad differnet and the blanket clamp must have came forward and when i inched round there was a clunk and a baaaadoing as a bearing went pop, after ten minuites of panic i took the walk of shame into the bosses office to break the bad news. cant remember how much damage was done but i know it was over 1000. so not to bad althouch i did go back the next year a bit sheepish.

The best one i know of which was an accident was an operator who i work with now, hed fed a 17mm spanner through the first impression cylinder through the transfers and then through unit 2 on impression and into the delivery, the engineer could not believe that it was possible to happen but im sure the boss could believe it when he got the invoice for the cylinder repair.

The last one is about a labourer who got short changed by the boss in his wages, he lost the plot and smashed a forklift into the side of a sm102 and doing a fair bit of damage then walkeed out happy as larry knowing hes got his moneys worth

Paul

hi there,

spoke to the printer yesterday about this incident and it was a allen key not a spanner my bad

 

[GazKL440]

heh we had a guy that was an expert allen key printer workin here for a while shit happens hey?

 

[rbailleu]

I was at an auction and artcraft/royal printing in wisconsin about 8 years ago. they had a nice 5 color mofph with a lovely 4 mm allen still imbedded in the first imp cylinder. looked like they just left it there and continued to print.

 

[dana]

i have a bad tale to tell you all. It all started with oil pressure problems which would shut off the press. Its was ok in the morning, as it came to second shift the problems would start. We had a tech come in and adjust the oil flow units 5,6 and coater had no drips at the top of the towers. we ending up replacing the oil circulation pumps, no luck. Upon removing the lower gear side cover I discovered broken teeth in the oil pans, my heart stopped and informed my boss. I had to let him know oil problem is nothing compared to the current discovery. not a good feeling at all. Not sure what excactly caused the damage, finding a sheet i didn't print under the coating unit 3mm thick mangled with coating. couldn't have helped the press at all. eventually the press did get fixed cylinder journals repaired, and even got the grippers set. Oh yah, we did find out the oil problem was caused by a solvent hose which was worn out by the swing gripper. everytime we washed roller or blankets it sprayed solvent in the oil pans which of course thinned out the oil causing low pressure. I wish i've could have caught the problems sooner, 6 months earlier I did notice a streak when printing the 6th unit. Now I know, I ended up leaving there and heard its printing better than before.

 

[Mike Herndon]

the fact that they let him keep his job after that is mind blowing to me.

Me too, trust me. That was back in the late 90's and I guess things were different back then. Management considered it an accident and claimed it on insurance. How can disabling the double sheet detector be an accident?? I worked behind this guy for years and was amazed at what I would walk in to. This was one of many tales of destruction, I could write a book about them. 14mm wrench dropped into the press while changing into perfecting; left a nice imprint on the storage drum but “only” took out one gripper since the press was being inched. Another one of my favorites- I came in a little early and he was frantically clearing out a big jam in the in feed. “Press ran great all night!” errr yeah, sure looks likes it. So we’re standing there talking while the press is idling and then something comes through the delivery…the sensor for the side guide pull. When he was blindly ripping sheets out of the in feed he knocked the wire loose for the side guide sensor and ranger drum caught it and pulled it through. It made it all the way through into the delivery. The press wasn’t on impression but it took out every blanket and a dryer lamp. Yep good times….

I will say this though; working behind that guy kept me on my toes and made me a much better press operator. I was exposed to problems only an engineer (or satan?) could dream of.

Mike

 

[GazKL440]

following d*#ckheads

following d*#ckheads

Its amazing how following a bad printer can sharpen you right up... it doesnt matter how many times the "donts" get drummed in, actually seeing them happen on a machine is a case in point lesson...you get to see first hand why things fall into the "do not do" basket... i have followed printers who wont put a lay mark on a sheet and disable side lay alarm so they dont have to listen to it bleat.. leave multiple smashed blankets and simply wind up enough impression to "get away with it"...ignore low oil alarms... cannot for the life of them load a good stack of paper or leave flags in front edge so that when you take over you invariably smash your blankets and others that dont seem to like backing up at all..happily run all fukn day on clean stock and leave you 5 skids or so to back up grrrr...

Alternatively when i first started running a 40 inch doing night shift with no assistant, the bloke i was following was a godsend, absolutely brilliant in his set up and running abilities.. i learnt very quickly the "if it aint broke dont fix it rule" and by simply studying how he applied the feeder and delivery systems of that press quickly got a good handle on keeping it going without dramas...taught me a considerable amount about commercial printing without really saying anything..

 

[keldrewett]

Its amazing how following a bad printer can sharpen you right up... it doesnt matter how many times the "donts" get drummed in, actually seeing them happen on a machine is a case in point lesson...you get to see first hand why things fall into the "do not do" basket... i have followed printers who wont put a lay mark on a sheet and disable side lay alarm so they dont have to listen to it bleat.. leave multiple smashed blankets and simply wind up enough impression to "get away with it"...ignore low oil alarms... cannot for the life of them load a good stack of paper or leave flags in front edge so that when you take over you invariably smash your blankets and others that dont seem to like backing up at all..happily run all fukn day on clean stock and leave you 5 skids or so to back up grrrr...

Alternatively when i first started running a 40 inch doing night shift with no assistant, the bloke i was following was a godsend, absolutely brilliant in his set up and running abilities.. i learnt very quickly the "if it aint broke dont fix it rule" and by simply studying how he applied the feeder and delivery systems of that press quickly got a good handle on keeping it going without dramas...taught me a considerable amount about commercial printing without really saying anything..

I always just blamed the arvo shift mate!!

 

[GazKL440]

I always just blamed the arvo shift mate!!

LOL

printing rule #20something hehe "you shall blame following/preceding shift for any mishaps"

 

[keldrewett]

LOL

printing rule #20something hehe "you shall blame following/preceding shift for any mishaps"

100% correct!!

 

[Albert Noel]

ive got a tale of my own here.
we had just started up a third shift on our 5 colour.
the new guy came up from running a qm-46 in house. he ran that thing very well and knew it like the back of his own hand, but was having issues learning our Roland.

anyway, to make a long story short, during a night shift, he needed to switch the press into perfecting mode. we trained him for a good 3 weeks on things like putting the press into perfecting and left detaild instructions, that even a child could do it.

basically, on this press, it's semi-automatic requiring you to loosen a clamp and let the press do it's thing, then re-clamp.

well, he somehow didn't remember to re-clamp after switching over (though we drilled it into his head for weeks beforehand) and basically inched the press over out of timing between the units before and after the perfecter. they spent all night trying to get it sorted out. i spent the better part of the morning fixing it after he left.

i started up my first job after and found sheets where missing from the delivery and the missing sheet sensor wasn't tripping the press off. turns out he had smashed almost all the grippers off the perfecting drum. (the straight printing arm). the grippers themselvs AND the pads they grip to. he even left a nice impression of each of the grippers on the lead edge of the suction transfer cylinder directly before the perfecter. it cost over $3000 in parts and labour to fix, and he was promptly relieved of his new promotion

 

[GazKL440]

just this morning came into a puzzled note on the k26,(press hopping again), re the feeder not coming up... boofhead had left a wedge in the feedboard and it bent the reflector for the stack locator... the wedge was still jammed in the fitting!! dont ppl have eyes??? took me 5 mins to re-align (read bend with a long flathead)... but cost about half a shift of production that floor manager was less than impressed with...spent all day whipping plates on and off an unfamiliar press trying to catch up on it...afternoon shift will get some O/T they also broke a locator lug on the cylinder somehow so first few MRs were a bit our of whack till i worked out the "guesstimate" point to mount magenta plates...