Rotary Printing Press Cleaning Unit for Substrate Recycling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Rotary printing presses face reduced productivity due to significant waste production and time-consuming waste removal during the adjustment phase, where multiple test prints are required to find optimal settings, resulting in substantial substrate waste and inefficiency.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a cleaning unit with brushes, brush rollers, or mitter curtains along the printing handling path to remove ink from substrates, combined with a detergent dispenser unit that applies heated detergents to efficiently clean the substrates, allowing for substrate recycling and reducing waste, and a method that utilizes reverse substrate transport for cleaning after the adjustment phase.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If multiple test prints are performed to find optimal printing settings, then printing quality is improved, but substrate waste increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a cleaning unit that removes ink from test print substrates, allowing them to be recovered and reused for subsequent printing jobs. This transforms the traditional waste disposal approach into a resource recovery system, where test print substrates are cleaned and reintroduced into the production stream, thereby reducing substrate waste and improving productivity while maintaining printing quality through proper parameter adjustment
2Manufacturing precision
If multiple test prints are performed to find optimal printing settings, then printing quality is improved, but substrate waste increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning unit removes ink from test print substrates, enabling them to be recovered and reused. This prevents the traditional disposal of test print substrates as waste, transforming them into reusable resources that can be employed in subsequent printing jobs, thereby significantly reducing substrate waste while maintaining the quality adjustment process
3Ease of operation
If waste is removed from the machine after test prints, then machine readiness is improved, but time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning unit operates continuously along the substrate transport path, cleaning substrates in real-time as they pass through, rather than requiring separate waste removal cycles. This continuous cleaning operation eliminates the need for dedicated waste removal time, maintaining machine readiness without increasing time consumption, and allows test print substrates to be immediately prepared for reuse
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution significantly reduces waste production, enhances productivity by allowing substrate reuse, and streamlines the cleaning process, decoupling it from the adjustment phase, thus minimizing time and personnel required for waste handling.
Implementation Method 1
the at least one cleaning unit comprises one or more cleaning elements selected from the group consisting of brushes, brush rollers and mitter curtains and combinations thereof
Implementation Method 2
a detergent reservoir and at least one nozzle, the detergent reservoir being configured to supply the detergent to the nozzle
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
The invention relates to a rotary printing press (10) for printing substrates (18), comprising a substrate transport system (12) which comprises a winder station (14) and an unwinder station (16) configured to transport a substrate (18) during a printing process along a printing handling path (19) from the unwinder station (16) to the winder station (14), wherein the rotary printing press (10) further comprises at least one cleaning unit (46) which is assigned to the printing handling path (19) and adapted to remove ink from the front side of the substrate (18). Further, the invention relates to a method for cleaning a substrate (18).