Thin Is In

The bearers of success

Another key factor—and one often overlooked—is lubrication. You wouldn't run your car or truck without proper lubrication and a flexo press is no different. Even though the bearer bars (also called bearers) on both rotary dies and anvils are under constant pressure, it is not uncommon for flexo presses to be run without sufficient lubricants on these critical surfaces. The resulting heat and pressure puts enormous stress on the bearer surfaces causing excessive wear, unpredictable cutting, waste of unacceptable finished product, and costly replacement of both die and anvil rollers (and possibly servo motors). It happens like this: when a die is not cutting correctly an inadequately trained press operator may increase the pressure on the die. The cut may improve—temporarily—but the added pressure increases the dynamic load and heats up the bearing surfaces. This can bring the rollers to the point at which they no longer function properly. Then, when they are sent out for servicing, the converter gets the sad news that the costly parts are worn beyond repair due to a simple lack of lubrication.