The Press of Atlantic City, N.J., launched a project to improve the maintenance and performance of its decades-old flexographic press using an enclosed chamber ink-metering system engineered and manufactured by a Cream Ridge, N.J., supplier to the flexo industry.

The newspaper installed 16 InkJector 3-zone chambers from Deneka Printing Systems Inc. on its 52-couple Hoe Colormatic/PEC conversion press, according to Operations Director John Rodney.

Photo: Deneka
The retrofit of the Press of Atlantic City’s flexographic press has enabled the paper to reduce the number of times it has to replace chambers and has improved performance.
 

Rodney said he was trying to find a way to improve maintenance and performance of the press’ existing chambers, which house components used to apply ink to the web.

“The chambers we had were very heavy, about 65 pounds, and when the crew was changing the chambers on the upper deck, safety was a real concern,” said Rodney. “We also had to change them out every four to five nights,” which meant additional expense and more possibility for injury. The chambers’ weight and design put additional pressure on the press’ anilox rollers, causing other problems.

Deneka recommended a retrofit from the sideframes in, said Deneka’s Rich Coleman, who managed the project.

 

The approach solved the weight problem and also offered other advantages that would help the project pay for itself, he said. To that end, in 2006, Deneka installed two chambers for evaluation.

Positive results

Initial trial results were positive, Rodney said. “Ink contamination was a problem before, but the new chambers are fully enclosed, so just eliminating the open pan also eliminated a lot of other problems, as well as a lot of clean up. Metering was crisper, less ink is used and the metering runs much cleaner. The new chambers are also self-adjusting so the pressmen don’t need to make running adjustments as they once did,” he said.

One problem, corrosion caused by the interaction between the flexo ink formulation used by newspapers and the metals in the original chambers, was resolved when Deneka replaced the metals with a high-grade polymer. The new material eliminated deterioration and also reduced the weight of the chambers to about half of the previous equipment.

“The polymer body we supplied will keep them corrosion-free for the life of the press,” Coleman said. “The body includes an integrated backbone that eliminates distortion, another frequent problem for flexo newspapers.”

After the initial two chambers, The Press equipped its machine with 14 additional systems last year. Since installing the redesigned chambers, Rodney said “they are performing flawlessly.”

In addition to improving performance, Rodney said the chambers are minimizing wear on the anilox rollers, a benefit he said crews are still measuring.

“We installed some new aniloxes on the stations where the chambers were installed,” he said. “The chamber’s 3-zone design has been very effective in cleaning the anilox. It wasn’t expected, but it is a plus all the same.

“Because of the way these chambers perform and the ceramic tip doctor blades we now use, we can leave the chambers in place for months without touching it,” Rodney said. “The blades stay in for months at a time and the chambers rarely need to come off the press at all, so there is literally little or no maintenance.”

Rodney said he hopes to install an additional eight to 16 new InkJector systems on the press this year, once capital expenditure constraints are lifted.

Paper to cut web width

Meantime, The Press upgraded its mailroom, adding a 24:1 Titan G60 inserter from K&M Newspaper Services Inc. The vendor also rebuilt for The Press two existing Goss International Corp. 1472 inserters, each configured as 13:1.

The Press added 6,000 square feet to its building to accommodate the renovated mailroom.

The upgrade “eliminates some prepacks,” Rodney said. “We were having to do multiple passes,” particularly for Sunday production.

The paper also upgraded its inserter control software, deploying apps from Miracom Computer Corp.

The Press plans to cut its web width, from 49 inches to 47 inches, in a project it is overseeing, this summer. The paper tapped Acutech LLC for magnetic bars and associated equipment to support the reduction.