Witney News - Edale and Meech Provide Dust Free Printing

Edale and Meech Provide Dust Free Printing

Edale and Meech Work Together to Provide Dust Free Printing

Designing a press that provides contamination-free printing is a tall order. But give the challenge to the design engineers at static control and surface cleaning specialists, Meech International (with offices in Witney) and Edale, one of the UK's leading manufacturers of narrow web flexographic printing presses and it’s problem solved. Working together, engineers from the two companies successfully integrated the Meech SCT 1000 web cleaner into the framework of an Edale press, to provide a machine that could deliver defect-free printing, without compromising the design or printing function.

Web contamination is a major problem for printing companies. Dust and debris is attracted to the web surface and electrostatic charges cause them to stick and form a "hickie".
This can lead to a multitude of problems including poor print quality, with ink contamination leading to customer dissatisfaction and high customer returns, excessive downtime for cleaning, high rejection rates in the laminating process and unacceptable quality in pharmaceutical and food packaging.

The Meech SCT Series 1000 has been developed as a result of Meech's experience gained through working closely with organisations looking for electrostatic and dust control solutions.

Compared to other web cleaners, the Meech system offers significant advantages. There are no expensive consumables nor machine downtime required for their replacement. No moving parts within the cleaning head means minimal maintenance and there is no fall off in performance over time, as happens with sticky roller and non-contact systems.

Combining static eliminators, brushes and a high power vacuum dust collection system, the Series 1000 System ensures that dust contamination is eliminated and also that the risk of further dust attraction is minimised.

Meech static eliminator bars cause the electrostatic charge binding the dust particles to the web to be broken down and the brushes destroy the boundary layer on the moving web to allow efficient removal of contamination. The Series 1000 has been designed with a unique, highly efficient vacuum control plate that gives complete coverage of the material surface. Flexible ducting then carries the contaminants to the collection system, where they are collected in a filter bag.

Not only does Meech work with manufacturers such as Edale, but they also provide solutions for end-users who are looking to retro-fit web cleaners on their printing presses. Ease of installation of the Series 1000 and simple web thread-up makes this a straightforward and simple process.