Tasked with printing a customer’s logo on an overly dusty caplet, the team of engineers at R.W. Hartnett developed a satisfying solution.
The Problem
Whenever a tablet or caplet has a dusty coating, printing a quality logo on its surface becomes very difficult. The printing process of offset rotogravure involves taking the ink from the design roll, applying it to the rubber roll, which then applies the logo directly onto the product. Unfortunately, when the dust settles on the product, it is transferred back onto the rubber roll and design roll, affecting the quality of the printing. Depending on the amount of dust involved, production may have to halt every two to five minutes to be cleaned. This amount of time-consuming maintenance was deemed unacceptable by the team at R.W. Hartnett, as it drastically affected the total output per hour.
White dust in the carrier bars from the caplets
The Solution
The engineering team at R.W. Hartnett was tasked with developing a way of cleaning the caplet directly before the printing process began. After research and development, the team came up with a custom cleaning system that featured a rotating brush that thoroughly cleaned the caplet surface so that the logo could be applied without issue. The Caplet Cleaner, as it became known, housed a spinning brush and a dust collecting vacuum system with a HEPA filter.
R.W. Hartnett’s Caplet Cleaner
Once installed, production time improved, with the rolls only needing cleaning after over 35 minutes. The team at R.W. Hartnett was able to provide a solution that allowed for the highest quality printing and led to uninterrupted production.
With 140 years of experience in the pharmaceutical printing industry, R.W. Hartnett provides exceptional machines for all of your printing needs. Have your factory floor running smoothly with American-made technology from R.W. Hartnett. Contact us today for custom pharmaceutical printing solutions.
forrás: rwhartnett.com 28.04.2021
