--Shanghai Liu Xiang General Equipments Co.,Ltd.

The East China Wuxi Friendship Association’s focus this year, The issue of how to optimize flexo printing machines has become a key concern for cardboard carton companies, particularly as the prices of foreign flexo printers are prohibitively high for the domestic carton industry.

Previously, the main concern was the water-based overprint precision of the printing press. Happily, domestic solutions have been found for this problem. However, the solution to the problem of poor accuracy and feed stability, another major headache for the industry, has proved elusive. In recent years, as the Chinese economy has rapidly developed and labor costs have risen, companies have had to rely on automatic water-based printing presses to combat labor shortages. The fast pace at which the machine operates, but the waste caused by defective carton machines, results in fewer than the required number of finished products being produced. If the quality and timely delivery of an order cannot be guaranteed, it affects the stability of the order. After using the rear-kicker feeding system’s traditional reciprocating type, the speed of the printing machine increases, which results in feeding instability and printing or slotting in the wrong part of the cartons.  This, in turn, will cause confusion in the production line.  This is a serious problem for all cardboard carton makers.

In order to eliminate the instability caused by the inertia from rear-kicker feeding system, the introduction of the lead-edge feeder will, in theory, have the following effects:

l         As the lead-edge feeder is facing the same direction, there is no error due to the inertia caused by the to and fro motion, so the stability of the feeding cardboard into the printing machine is increased.

l         The printing and slotting process will use the front paperboard as a benchmark.   As a result, more accurate slotting and printing on the paperboard is achieved.

l         The lead-edge feeder will use friction modulus principle to transfer the paperboard. This will improve the production speed and avoid paperboard being wasted.

l         The lead-edge feeder can feed thin cardboard, such as E, F, G single-wall corrugated board, into the carton machine.  This negates the rear-kick feeder’s need for thick cardboard and removes overlap.

At present, the lead-edge feeder’s two institutional forms are belt-type and sun wheel. A gap occurs when mechanical transmission is used, though the transmission chain will produce virtual digital zoom, so that feed accuracy is greatly reduced. Over a long period of use, the gap in the machine increases.  When the feeding axle is touched, vibrations can be felt obviously. The empty space cannot be eliminated and the process cannot be repaired, resulting in a bad situation for correct feeding. The original high expectations of the leading edge feeder are dashed and the realization dawns that replacing the expensive cam gear only solves part of the problem.

Nowadays the advance solution is to adopt the servo motor control system (synchronous transmission) in order to quickly react and improve the precisely positioning, more stability and durability of the flexo printers.