1. What is the difference between open ink well and sealed inking machines?
2. Do I have to completely fill my Printex sealed ink cup with ink?
3. Could I use a smaller ink cup than the one that came with my Printex machine?
4. What is the best way to clean my Printex sealed ink up?
1. What is the difference between open ink well and sealed inking machines?
Sealed inking systems employ a hermetically sealed container (ink cup), which acts as the ink supply, flooding and doctoring mechanism all in one. The seal is accomplished using a ceramic ring with a highly polished working edge. Advantages are: stability of ink viscosity, long plate life, easier cleanup compared to open well systems, cleaner operation, and when using one-component inks, the printer can be left set up over night. Disadvantage is: larger plate sizes are necessary to accommodate ink cup travel.
Open ink well systems (older technology) use a trough (ink well) for the ink supply, located behind the printing plate. A flood bar pushes a pool of ink over the plate, and a doctor blade removes the ink from the plate surface, leaving ink on the etched artwork area ready for the pad to pick up. Advantages are: typically smaller plate size relative to the image area. Disadvantages are: the ink supply is exposed to the air and must be frequently adjusted due to thinner evaporation, fume emissions are much higher than with sealed inking systems, open inking systems are not as clean--the inking system must be completely cleaned at the end of each production day.
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2. Do I have to completely fill my Printex sealed ink cup with ink?
In most cases, yes. In any case, we do not recommend that you fill the cup less than halfway. Due to inertia, the ink inside the cup takes on a wave action as the cup moves back and forth. For example, as the cup moves forward, the ink in the cup tends to pile up against the backside of the cup, leaving the front edge dry.
When the cup comes to rest for several seconds, the ink settles down again. If your machine is running quickly (most machines are), the ink may never fully recover from each "wave" as regions of the engraved image will always be in the dry zone. As you probably know, if the engraved image does not get completely flooded with ink, you will not get repeatable good print results.
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3. Could I use a smaller ink cup than the one that came with my Printex machine?
Yes. Printex sealed inking pad printers can accept any of our standard ink cups, up to the maximum size cup provided with the machine. When printing a relatively small image, a smaller cup can be used to reduce the amount of ink needed.
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4. What is the best way to clean my Printex sealed ink up?
Step 1: the ink cup should be carefully emptied and the remaining ink stored for future reuse. If two-part ink is used, it needs to be placed into a holding container for future proper disposal (please consult your federal, state and local rules and regulations). Never dispose of ink by discarding it as garbage.
Step 2: the ink cup should be wiped clean with a shop towel to remove excess ink. Place the cup into a container filled with Printex D-Solv (or other suitable cleaner) to soak for one hour. After that time, the ink should be emulsified enough for it to be cleaned off easily with a bristle brush while the ink cup is still immersed in D-Solv.
Step 3: after you've brushed out all the emulsified ink, and made sure that there is no ink left in the ink cup, take the ink cup out of the container of D-Solv, and rinse it off in warm water. Use forced air to dry the ink cup. After the ink cup is dry, it is ready for use.
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