Printing knowledge: how to increase the operating rate of printing presses?

Reducing the time for adjusting the printing press is one of the most effective means for us to improve the efficiency of the printing press. If we make 20 orders per printing machine every day, and the time for each order change is 20 minutes, then each printing machine has to change orders for one day and shut down for up to 400 minutes. If it takes only 10 minutes to change the order, it will directly save 200 minutes of time and increase the efficiency by 50%.

To achieve this, we need to reasonably arrange a series of work from pre-printing preparation to on-site commissioning and personnel division. Only by increasing the boot rate of the equipment can the goal of 50% efficiency increase be achieved!

How to do it?

1. Do a good job in pre-press preparation with less effort

Let's talk about the details of the details that need to be paid attention to in the pre-press preparation work. What do we need to prepare before printing? How to ensure that the preparation is in place?

1. Prepare the ink required by the printing press

Receive ink and check whether the PH value, viscosity and hue of the ink meet the standard. Because the PH value controls the adsorption of printing on paper, especially dot printing is the most prominent. If your PH value adjustment is the previous red PH value is set to 9 and the subsequent overprint color blue PH value is set to 8, so the effect of overprinting is that blue cannot cover red, and the overprinting effect will be poor. Similarly, viscosity is one of the most critical factors for controlling printing quality. If the viscosity is too high, printing will be unclear, deinking, etc., so it must be tested. Without checking the hue, if the ink is found to be incorrect, then clean the ink, it will lose 2 kg of ink and it will take at least 15 minutes to stop and change the ink. After checking the print production schedule, arrange personnel to pick up the ink that needs to be used that day and place it in the on-site workshop. Stir the ink before putting it on the machine, and then recycle the ink.

2. Prepare the printing plate required by the printing press

In the printing process, we often find that the printing plate is wrong or found that the printing plate is worn out and the printing cannot be printed, which results in the shutdown of the order. Each time will result in 30 minutes of downtime waste and each time the waste of ink cleaning is at least 2-4 kg of ink. How to overcome this situation?

(1) The printing room staff takes the printed version according to the production schedule and sends it to the printing machine.

(2) The person who takes the plate first performs basic inspection on the printed version, such as whether the text is correct.

(3) Check whether there are stains or wear on the layout, and then send it to the machine and check whether the printed version number is correct.

3. Cardboard preparation

During the printing process, the printing plates and inks were put on the machine, and it was found that the cardboard did not come out, which caused the machine to change the order to wash the ink. Such things happen from time to time. The following suggestions are for your reference and can be used to prevent similar problems.

1) First check whether the cardboard has been produced to avoid the phenomenon that the printing plate is hung but there is no cardboard printing.

2) According to the production schedule, sort out the order of the production cardboards.

Summary: If the above three aspects can be achieved, our on-site downtime will be reduced by 20%. Only by controlling the details can we gradually improve the efficiency of the printing press.

2. Simultaneously manage internal and external tasks to increase the efficiency of printing press by 50%

Enterprises want to improve printing efficiency. Huayin experts believe that the best way to improve is to record our current work situation: record all the adjustment actions and divide them into internal and external tasks, and convert internal tasks into external tasks as much as possible. And reduce the time required for external tasks.

1. Internal tasks

Internal tasks are activities that must be performed when the device is locked: such as changing the printing plate, adjusting the position of the crimping wheel, etc., the machine must stop. So how do we complete internal tasks ahead of time? Usually four people have one piece of equipment, and No. 1 is the captain of No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 is the deputy.

(1) We often find that after the last order, employees do not know what to do, just wait there or wait for the captain's instructions. Therefore, we need to reduce the connection time before opening the machine after the order is stopped, so as to achieve the effect of shortening the preparation time.

(2) After the order is placed, the equipment stops and our employees often find tools and tools repeatedly to do repeated actions. We must reduce the time that employees 1, 2, and 3 repeatedly enter and exit the machine to pick up tools after the machine is turned on. When the movement is reduced, the time is reduced.

(3) In the normal operation, after the previous order is printed, the previous order version ink is washed and then the printed version is found, which will waste 1-2 minutes. The correct method is to prepare the printing plate, pad and ink to be replaced in advance, and place it in the printing unit that needs to be replaced. This saves 2 minutes of time.

(4) It is very important to adjust the process parameters of the next work order. It is necessary to adjust according to the data records on the process card. This specific operation standard can be viewed on a WeChat related to a test machine.

(5) The printing press is a teamwork team. When a post does not complete the internal matters, other personnel should actively go to production and concentrate on human resources to complete the internal events first.

Summary: According to the above operation, you can save 4-5 minutes, that is, 20 orders a day saves 100 minutes and improves the efficiency by 20%.

2. External tasks

External tasks are activities that can be performed during the production of cartons on equipment: quasi-printing plates, ink or inking and other work items. So how can we shorten the external time?

1. After the order is placed, we should quickly clean up the paper feed section and start to adjust, pull the printed matter of the order, adjust the stacker to prepare the tray.

2. We need to use employee No. 4 as much as possible to complete external events. Only by reasonably arranging the work flow of employees can the waiting time be reduced.

Summary: To improve the printing efficiency by 50%, we need to meet the actual needs through on-site operation and verification. One method that can be used for reference is to use the camera to actually shoot on the spot, and then discuss and improve. After 2-3 discussions and improvements, it will definitely save a lot of time.