Mona's Machinery Blog

Hi everyone! Happy 4th of July. During these uncertain times, I feel we need a reason to celebrate even more than ever this year. I'd love to hear your success stories. Here's one of ours to get us started. No matter what type of planned maintenance project you have, if you don’t have a good schedule it will fail. MGF Services is no stranger when it comes to planning a time table for a pre-planned maintenance project. One of our recent projects was recovering 30+ ink metering rolls for a Sunday 2000 press with our Rilsan coating. This project started off with some flexible dates for completion but as we got closer to the start, the timeframe for delivery became very tight due to shifting schedules of personnel needed to install the ink metering rolls. Working backwards from the customer’s deadline date for installation to get the press up and running, we sent partial orders to keep the installers moving without interruption. At the end of the project, w...

I have been working with printing and packaging companies' maintenance departments for 40 years. Our company's policies and procedures continue transitioning to keep up with the ever-changing requirements, solutions, and challenges to get the job done. Depending on the type of business industry you serve, there will be projects that have "The Murphy's Law" trophy. Let's face it, our communication process can get lost down the supply chain, and when something goes wrong everyone goes into PANIC mode. Developing a partnership as part of your supply chain, we can identify potential modifications that improve the performance and in most cases reduce out-of-pocket expenses. In the case of the hardened slitter rollers shown, WE SAVE THE AVERAGE CUSTOMER 40% WHEN COMPARED TO OEM COSTS . Keys to a Successful Maintenance Project:  Identify the details Communicate with team decision-makers Plan in advance with your supply chain and logistics Confi...

Draw rollers, also known as pull, traction, driven, all have one thing in common: Tungsten carbide (Wolfram) coating.   The primary function of draw rollers are to guide and draw paper. The coatings on the roller determine the "lifespan of the roller." The life of the roller coating depends on the operational use, of course. Typically, however, this coating will last years. How do you know when it's time to repair? When the roller starts to look "smooth" or takes on a glazing appearance, it is time to "recover" your roller.   In my experience most customers that we service don’t have spare or extended downtime to recover. What you need to have is a pre-planned repair which includes: Verifying dimensions Verifying tolerances Knowing the base material of roller Knowing the type of grit (fine, medium, or coarse)  How many times has your roller been recovered Committing to confirmed dates the press will be down to expedite your roller recovering....

The printing industry is ever-changing, but your machines are always running. When things start to fail, how are you supposed to know if it's better to repair or replace your machinery parts? Unless a part has reached its threshold to repair, you should be able to refurbish most mechanical applications. Such as:  Ceramic rollers  Idler rollers used in handling adhesives, hot plastics, sticky material  Draw rollers  Stationary jaws  Former board and noses  Corona Treater rolls  Chrome rollers  We have some more information on our website: http://www.mgf-services.com/coatings   These parts can be extremely costly to replace. I have been repairing these types of parts for decades. If you hire the right company, you can save a lot of money by expertly refurbishing worn parts. However, there are certain mechanical parts where repair/refurbished are not viable options. In these cases, replacement parts are the only reco...