5 Reasons to Automate Cleaning of Press Parts

The printing process involves a lot of moving parts, literally. Manually cleaning press parts is not only a hassle, it's really hard work. However, ALL of your parts must be consistently clean if you want continually high output from your printing machine. There is no easy way to go about it, or is there?

Automated cleaning of press parts is the smartest way to ensure consistent high output from your printing machine and the highest possible printing quality. It does not matter whether you clean with solvents, non-flammable liquids or alkaline liquids — you get the same high results every time.

Benefits of automated cleaning of press parts:

1. Improved overall production quality

Automated cleaning systems significantly increase the overall cleanliness of your workplace. Most importantly, the number of do-over printing jobs reduces, your print quality improves and you will potentially be able to ramp up your production to do even more printing jobs.

Your printing machinery has certain benchmarks that you bought into: printing speed time, set-up time, quality, etc. None of those can numbers can be achieved on a daily basis if you run the operation based on manual cleaning.

2. Reduced downtime

Downtime is bad for business. When production halts, due to a flaw or failure, valuable time is spent finding that fault and usually having to start the project all over again.

Automated cleaning of your press parts ensures that your printing machine is always clean and is always ready to do your next printing job – and do it well.

3. Prolong the lifetime of printing machine

Your printing machine is the heart of your production. It is the main thing that generates income, but do you know what else makes you money? Proper cleaning.

Proper cleaning of your printing machine prolongs its lifetime. In turn, you get more return on your investment and fewer do-over jobs, all because you have a clean machine that does not negatively affect your printing job.

4. Improve your HSE (Health and Safety Environment)

Manual cleaning of your press parts is a slow and tedious process that requires a lot of manpower. But what is even worse is the effect manual cleaning has on the cleaner’s health. Research shows that a person that does manual cleaning is more likely to get sick and leave their position. Even if you want to do it correctly, setting up a manual cleaning operation without any health hazards is challenging.

Implementing automated cleaning significantly increases the overall health and safety of your employees. These employees are more likely to remain in their job for longer, which means you are not rehiring for the same position repeatedly.

5. Free up production space

Manual cleaning takes up a lot of space physically. Space is needed for all the equipment, solvents and workers. You need a place to dry all your press parts. Lastly, you need a place to store the used material safely. With an automated cleaning machine, you immediately reduce the amount of space needed.

Switching to automated cleaning creates a new unique workflow for your production, where you bring the cleaning in closer proximity to the printing machine and, in return, reduce the time it takes to clean your machine further.