Perhaps it is because we are such tactile workers that not much information appears online to help newspaper printers or pressroom workers. It’s pretty amazing, the lack on information online, considering much less obscure trades are written about with depth and aplomb.   In an effort to change that, I will be posting some of the more common newspaper printing problems and their solutions here on metaprinter. If there is something you would like me to cover please send an email.

This post covers troubleshooting and resolving newspaper web wrinkles. Wrinkles are a major cause of waste, delay, and customer complaints. I have created two powerpoint slides to highlight the differences. First, there are two types of web that can be found on a newspaper web.

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1. diaganol wrinkles

As the names imply, diagonal wrinkles run diagonal to the running web. They are caused by rollers being out of tram or out of parallel. The most common problem on an offset web press is a compensator roller that jumped a tooth and is now crooked. The easiest way to determine if this is the case is to us a tape measure or piece of string to measure the distance from one roller to the next. Do this on the OP side and Drive side of the roller. The measurements should be exactly the same. If not, tram the roller.

2. machine direction wrinkles.

Machine direction wrinkles in the same direction as the running web. These are usually caused by tension (too high or too low) problems OR dirty pipe rollers. The wrinkles will originate from the problem area so just trace them back to where they are coming from.

That’s it. Hope this helps.  Monday’s topic – BelloFram Cylinders and their application in for Floating and Dancing rollers.

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