Digital Printing Press Maintenance Best Practices

Any print shop owner or manager understands that equipment must work at all times. Your job is to churn out the maximum number of saleable prints every day. It is your duty to shore up the bottom line. Your worst nightmare is to suffer delays due to malfunctioning digital print equipment. This is why it is vital to keep the digital printing press in pristine running condition. You should not only inspect and test the equipment but also replace worn parts if needed. In other words, preventive maintenance is important to stop any incidence of downtime. Wear and examine Most digital press printers generate about a million pages in any given month. Heavy duty months may see two million printed copies rolling off the press. These invariably comes with heavy wear and tear on different machine parts. If not careful, downtime could happen during the peak use periods. The preventive maintenance must ensure that large volumes of print could be managed sans any issues. To do this, hire the services of a qualified expert and ask that person to do an exhaustive look through. Do test every part. Tune up the wayward ones and the full machine when you get the chance. Process The fundamentals of digital printing machine preventive maintenance include performing a better visual copy quality inspection. A test print must be done in service mode. A network print request should be done. The results should then be compared for differences in the print quality. The full primary fixing assembly and secondary fixing assembly must be inspected for worn internal parts. If needed, the parts should be replaced. The same procedure should be followed for process kit internals. These include drums, developers, cleaning blades, and corona grids. The ITB assembly parts which are worn down must be replaced and the new ones adjusted to all system specifications. Every paper source feed or pick up assembly must be cleaned and inspected. Parts should be replaced when required. All must be adjusted to the system specifications. Every installed accessory must be cleaned and adjusted. If required, the parts must be replaced. A software update is also important. Ensure the most advanced system software runs in the system. Verify the print driver handshake. Do not forget to replenish the parts which were utilized from the client shelf stock. Do store extra spare parts to be used during critical times like rush hours.