A3P®: AUTOMATIC PRINTING PRESSURE PRE-SETTING SYSTEM

The automatic printing pressure pre-setting system at machine start has been developed by Expert to allow the operator to achieve, in a very short time and minimum material waste, correct printing pressure.

The system is completely automatic and works with machine stopped.
The software calculates the most proper anilox and printing cylinder positions.
Once ready, the machine starts running with printing sleeves in optimal positions.
Accuracy is granted by very high precision linear guides for the printing decks and accurate software developed specially for this application.

A-C SYSTEM, Automatic equipment for ink (solvent or water based) circulation and cleaning on flexo printing units with closed chamber doctor blade inking.

The A-C System has been realized in order to feed the necessary ink during the printing process and in order to rapidly clean the chamber doctor blade, the anilox roller and all ink pipes completely, during the job change-over time.
The system, completely automatic, has been studied to obtain an optimal cleaning of the complete inking unit in shortest time and with a minimal waste of solvent/water.

The A-C System includes two pneumatic membrane pumps with double diaphragm and a bloc of valves which allows the distribution of the fluids during the inking cycle and the different washing cycles.
The structure of the A-C System allows an easy and fast servicing.
The A-C System is foreseen to accept a viscosity control and regulating equipment.
Due to the fact that the system has a double pneumatic circuit, it allows disposing of two different injecting pressures; one for the inking, and one for the cleaning process.

The A-C System is supervised by a PLC which controls the different inking and the cleaning cycles.
From the operator panel, with a password, the time of each cycle can be modified according the needs of the operator.

The modular construction allows an eventual substitution for maintenance of each single unit in a simple and easy way.

Description of its functioning:

The washing process consists in, first: draining the remaining printing ink from the chamber doctor blade and from the ink pipes and bring it back into the ink tank, second: injecting solvent/water to start the cleaning phase.Two kind of cleaning cycles can be chosen: “hard” or “soft”.
During the cycle “hard”, the first cleaning is done by using semi dirty solvent/water with detergent, which, at the end of the cycle is convoyed into the dirty solvent/water tank.
and the final cleaning with clean solvent/ water, which, at the end of the cycle is convoyed into the semi dirty solvent/water tank.
Cycle “soft” uses only clean solvent/clean water and during a relative short time.
During both cycles, “hard” and “soft”, after the solvent/water ignition, it effects internal recycling and ejecting cycles.
The PLC of this unit controls automatically the draining and injecting sequences for the ink and for the solvent/water.

Automatic viscosity controls, type INKFLOW-C14

Expert’s INK-FLOW C-14 viscosity control unit has been developed to measure and regulate the viscosity of the ink, controlled by its own electronic card.
The measuring of the viscosity is done through a vibrating sensor, built into the ink pipe.

The measuring is done in time intervals and allows to maintain a constant viscosity during the complete working phase and also during short machine stops (if the ink circulation is maintained).
The system is self-cleaning and doesn’t need operator maintenance at the end of the job.

TOOL-LESS CHAMBER DOCTOR BLADE

“NO TOOL” system to change the blades and side seals in the machine without the use of tools.

The doctor blade system is mounted on sliding blocks in order to control the pressure on the anilox roller sleeve.
The alignment and pressure set up of the blades against the anilox roller sleeve are obtained thru screws and a pneumatic system. The pressure regulation of the doctor blade onto the anilox roller can be made pneumatically and also mechanically, in order to avoid overpressure and therefore high consumption of the blades.

The doctor blade chamber is in hard anodized aluminum.
At the anilox sleeve-change, the doctor blade system moves back pneumatically to ensure the necessary space for the changing operation. Doctor blade chamber is provided with special holes with fast couplings for ink in- and outlet.
Ink is circulated by a pneumatic pump or with an automatic ink circulating and cleaning system

Sleeve change is very quickly, easily and completely tool-less.
The clamping system of the mandrel, on the front side, is opened and closed manually for the sleeve change.

The central drum cleaning is extremely simple thanks to the ease of access.
If it is necessary to clean the drum, is sufficient to remove the central ink trays, disconnect the drying box air ducts (internal and / or external), unlock it by a knob and open the box (see picture).
Doing so, operator will have a large portion of the drum free for cleaning.