Recently, a Flexo Wash client approached us about upgrading their Flexo Wash Parts Washer in order to keep up with their increased production. Their facility produces over 2 billion labels a year — that is a lot of labels and a lot of cleanup.
Past Cleaning Methods
Six years ago, this client was cleaning press parts with a small parts cleaner. To give some perspective, the cleaner could fit on top of a 55-gallon drum. One person was in charge of the cleaning of the parts per shift. They would spend time before and after prewashing parts, loading pans into whatever parts washers were free and then manually washing them again afterwards.
They added a Flexo Wash Eco Midi, which is a smaller Parts Washer. This worked fine until production ramped up and so did the cleaning of the parts. With this machine, they could only clean four pans and much more capacity was needed. They needed to reevaluate their cleaning processes to keep up with their demand.
Time for an Upgrade
In the last year, the client added two additional flexo presses, which increased their production significantly. They decided to purchase a new Flexo Wash PK 200 WR TrolleyLoad after noticing a lot of bottlenecking in the cleaning process. The upgrade to a bigger machine “was a must —with lines of parts waiting to be cleaned and we could not keep up” according to client.
From four pans to ten pans
With an upgrade to this much larger Parts Washer, they have tripled the number of parts they can clean and their throughput has increased 150%. They have increased from cleaning four pans to ten pans. It has greatly improved their offline cleaning process. Now the process is “lightly prewashing to get excess ink removed, then loading up to ten pans, then to drying off the parts after the cleaning cycle. We were able to completely eliminate an entire step. In turn, it improved production on the press side because we no longer are having presses down waiting for press parts to be cleaned.”
Saving two hours of cleaning time each shift
More importantly, the employees are spending much less time cleaning, saving about two hours EACH SHIFT. All the shifts like using this machine because of the comprehensive cleaning and the improved ergonomics because you no longer are reaching into the machine to put in or pull-out parts. The TrolleyLoad option is great for transport and basic implementation of all parts.
Bigger tank means saving time between replenishing cleaning solutions
Another big element in the time-saving is the fact that this Parts Washer has a 45-gallon tank, as compared to the eight-gallon tank their last parts washer had. This means longer time between changing and replenishing cleaning solutions and saved time in cleaning processes.
Return on Investment
This client went from waiting on machines to now the machines are waiting on parts to clean. Production is no longer held up by longer cleaning processes.
They use Flexo Wash Parts Washers because “FW understands what is needed, you have many years of knowledge trying to understand what works best”. From their experience of watching the evolution and improvements made from upgrading from the FW Eco Midi to the PK Trolleyload, they note that Flexo Wash is “simply continuously improving the machines.”
There is no doubt that the return on investment is a definite, even though they have not run any numbers as of yet. Considering they doubled their output in just a few days after installing the new machine, this is a successful investment.
Flexo Wash Parts Washers
Our fully-automatic washing units are designed to wash all of the press parts from your narrow web or wide web presses. It is effective on all types of ink.
Benefits include:
- Safe and easy washing
- Short washing time
- Made for all ink types
- Recirculation of cleaning solution
- Cleans all press parts
- Minimal maintenance
Click HERE to learn more about these cleaning systems.