Punching Out a Preventive Maintenance Punch List
A preventive maintenance program is not difficult to implement if you have a commitment from the company to make it part of its routine and culture.
January 2008 by Chris Mc Loone
|
It seems things are built so well these days that we hardly think about maintenance until something goes wrong. However, when your livelihood and the livelihood of your employees depends on your printing equipment functioning properly, the onset of system failure is not the time to be thinking maintenance.
If you are in the business of converting certain types of films, foils, and even some papers into packaging, you know that before printing on any of these substrates, their surfaces must be treated in some way to improve their receptiveness to various inks, coatings, or adhesives. To ensure your surface-treating systems are working properly, a good preventive maintenance (PM) program is critical.
Designing your PM program
PM programs are by no means one-size-fits-all propositions. While there are components to any system that require regular checks, each shop will have its own set of unique circumstances that will affect surface-treating equipment. Converters should also consider specific applications in which the equipment will be used and the training of their equipment operators.
“Every converter has a unique situation that can affect the PM program, such as humidity, cleanliness, products that generate contamination of the [surface] treater, etc.,” says Lance Kimrey, Corona Designs. “The PM program should be designed to include the basic items, as well as the specific needs of the converter.” Such items include cleaning electrode insulators, the electrode discharge area, and the treater roll surface, as well as checking the ground brush and safety interlock switches.
According to Kenneth Klein, president and CEO of QC Electronics, Inc., “When developing a PM program, you must consider the environment the treater is operating in, the product the treater has running through it, and the amount of run time.”
Dennis Damon, eastern regional sales, Corotec Corp. concurs about the environment. “The environment [in which] the treater is located should dictate how often the system is inspected and cleaned,” he says. “This will consist of the plant air that is being drawn through the system. In extreme cases, a system will require attention every day, or it could be once a year if installed in a clean room.”
Tom Gilbertson, vice president, application engineering for Enercon, adds that environmental and climate factors can impact the need for more aggressive maintenance programs. “Dirty environments and locations with high humidity will require additional vigilance to keep systems working properly,” he says.
Finally, Robert Hablewitz, business unit manager, Pillar Technologies, emphasizes the importance of tailoring a PM program to specific applications. “Some applications are much cleaner than others,” he says. “As an example, in the case of an extrusion line running high-slip resin blends, cleaning is required more frequently. It will also be helpful to consider past failure history to determine what areas of the system should be focused on.”
If you are in the business of converting certain types of films, foils, and even some papers into packaging, you know that before printing on any of these substrates, their surfaces must be treated in some way to improve their receptiveness to various inks, coatings, or adhesives. To ensure your surface-treating systems are working properly, a good preventive maintenance (PM) program is critical.
Designing your PM program
PM programs are by no means one-size-fits-all propositions. While there are components to any system that require regular checks, each shop will have its own set of unique circumstances that will affect surface-treating equipment. Converters should also consider specific applications in which the equipment will be used and the training of their equipment operators.
“Every converter has a unique situation that can affect the PM program, such as humidity, cleanliness, products that generate contamination of the [surface] treater, etc.,” says Lance Kimrey, Corona Designs. “The PM program should be designed to include the basic items, as well as the specific needs of the converter.” Such items include cleaning electrode insulators, the electrode discharge area, and the treater roll surface, as well as checking the ground brush and safety interlock switches.
According to Kenneth Klein, president and CEO of QC Electronics, Inc., “When developing a PM program, you must consider the environment the treater is operating in, the product the treater has running through it, and the amount of run time.”
Dennis Damon, eastern regional sales, Corotec Corp. concurs about the environment. “The environment [in which] the treater is located should dictate how often the system is inspected and cleaned,” he says. “This will consist of the plant air that is being drawn through the system. In extreme cases, a system will require attention every day, or it could be once a year if installed in a clean room.”
Tom Gilbertson, vice president, application engineering for Enercon, adds that environmental and climate factors can impact the need for more aggressive maintenance programs. “Dirty environments and locations with high humidity will require additional vigilance to keep systems working properly,” he says.
Finally, Robert Hablewitz, business unit manager, Pillar Technologies, emphasizes the importance of tailoring a PM program to specific applications. “Some applications are much cleaner than others,” he says. “As an example, in the case of an extrusion line running high-slip resin blends, cleaning is required more frequently. It will also be helpful to consider past failure history to determine what areas of the system should be focused on.”
Companies Mentioned:
 |
|
|
|||
|
|
|
Chemistry for the Graphic Arts
What the Printer Should Know About Paper