Featured Video: FlexoCleanerBrush Cleaning Efficiency for the Corrugated Industry
/Baldwin Technology's FlexoCleanerBrush™ (FCB) is a highly efficient solution for automatically cleaning for post-print flexographic printing onto corrugated boards.
Christina: Baldwin just announced that the packaging leader VPK group has invested in the FlexoCleanerBrush from Baldwin. So, today, we’re meeting with Lee Simmonds to learn what this product is and how it fits in the corrugated industry. Lee, what is the FlexoCleanerBrush?
Lee: The Flexo Cleaner Brush is a fully automated plate cleaning system. The system is designed to clean hickeys from the printing plate that is caused by dust and paper debris and to also fully clean and dry the plates simultaneously and registration is gained at the beginning of a print run, mid way through the print run, or at the end of a the print run. Our cleaning cycles also enable the print quality to be maintained and also with reduced board waste.
Christina: And can you explain how the product operates?
Lee: Yes sure, Christina, we have a brush unit which is integrated into each print station and the brush is the full width of the printing cylinder. We apply a small amount of fluid onto the brush through our fluid management system and precision spray nozzles. The brush rotates and with our built-in automatic plate thickness gauge ensures precise contact with the printing plate gently cleaning the relief and non-relief areas. We then have a specifically designed air knife which will then dry the printing plate afterwards and this avoids the plates sticking together when they re-enter into the racking system and is far safer for the operators to handle. After each cleaning cycle, the brush then performs a self-clean ready for the next time it is used.
Christina: Thank you! And what type of cleaning can the FlexoCleanerBrush perform?
Lee: We have various types of cleaning cycles and generally we see the requirement for start of run cleaning once register is gained before good boards are printed. And then we also have production run cleaning; this can be to remove hickeys or debris caused by paper dust which often occurs and frequently impacts on the print quality. Or if the operator experiences any premature drying of the ink either from a viscosity change or they’re printing with a heavy pigmented ink, we can quickly clean all of the plates and return the machine back to printing good quality boards in a minimal amount of time. We also have end of run cleaning where we fully clean and dry all of the plates simultaneously in under four minutes.
Christina: I understand there was an independent study conducted as VPK Group was evaluating the FlexoCleanerBrush – what were the results of this study?
Lee: So, our system was independently assessed to analyze the time it takes to carry out various cleaning cycles and the performance of our system. And the study validated the fact that our hickey cleaning cycle was in contact with the plate for 1 second only and that our full plate cleaning programs are complete within 3m 47s. This is for cleaning and drying all printing plates on all units. No consumables are used, and very, very little maintenance is required. This is a very, very efficient system and the cost of ownership and payback calculations were also independently assessed and fell favorably in line with the payback requirements of VPK.
Christina: Those are amazing results; so, if you think of the alternatives to the FlexoCleanerBrush, what would that be and what would that mean?
Lee: The alternatives are very costly, manual cleaning takes up so much time and is very inefficient. Stopping mid production run to clean manually is all wasted time and inconvenience and board wastage is generally is higher. You could opt for a general hickey picking cleaning device, but you don’t have the added benefit of cleaning and drying all the plates before and all of the plates after the print run where a lot of time is lost by operators carrying out this procedure. Consumables can also be costly, and we are the only manufacturer to offer a full width, fully integrated plate cleaning and drying system with the added benefit of a hickey picker functionality. We have no consumable cost and the system has been proven to perform with outstanding results.
Christina: So, to summarize, in what way is this product ideal for the corrugated industry?
Lee: The FlexoCleanerBrush is truly an innovation for post-print flexographic printing onto corrugated boards—there is nothing even remotely comparable on the market. Operator efficiency is paramount. It’s a very competitive market. And our product offering is the perfect solution to save time, be more efficient, help maintain print quality and it will increase the daily production output. We can reduce the amount of non-productive time that is wasted on each and every production run from manual cleaning, and this can be quite considerable when data is analyzed over a day, a week, a month or even annually.
Christina: Thank you, Lee, for sharing this news with us today.
Lee: Thank you, Christina. Thanks for the opportunity.
Christina: And for those of you watching, you can learn more about the FlexoCleanerBrush on the Baldwin Tech website. Thank you, bye, bye!