Version 3 Picker Upgrade

Intro | Installation Procedure | Setup/Integration | Troubleshooting | Picker Upgrade Drawings

Introduction

Upgrading a modern machine to a Version 3 Picker will take about 4 hours to install (includes drilling a few holes in the load table) and an hour to adjust.  Use the rest of the day to test plates.

If you have an Early Production Machine SA01 to SA12 you will have an extra day of work upgrading the manual bypass door, safety loop and skins. Contact Chris Morley to find out exactly what you need.

NOTE: There are 5 early production Version 3 pickers on Heidelberg machines. On full production units, a change was made to move the wrist speed controls from under the Black cross bar to the manifold. See the V3 Revisions section.

Do you need this upgrade?
The primary purpose for the Version 3 picker is to support 0.15 mm thick plates. Four features that enable this support:

• The plate drop variance from 1 plate through to a stack of 25 plates is eliminated. Now all plates will drop the same distance onto the registration pins in the drum. This is required to prevent the edges of the thin plates from denting if dropped too far.
• The plate is moved farther away from the plate ledge after a pick. The 0.15 mm plates are so flexible they were drooping under their own weight into the ledge and as soon as the old picker was moved down the plate would crumple.
• The plates are wristed as close to the edge as possible. The 0.15 mm plates were again too flexible to generate any separation forces by dragging them across the plate ledge. By grabbing the plate closer to the edge this force will increase somewhat.
• The wristing action is increased from 12 to 45 degrees to provide higher pealing forces that should help inhibit double picking.

Although this picker has features that deter double picking, the frequency of double picking will not decrease significantly. If this is your problem, perform the plate ledge upgrade procedure (FCO E395).

Procedure

WARNING: Failure to follow Kodak’s safety policies and procedures for field engineers may create a dangerous situation that could result in serious injury as well as damage to the output device. For more information, see the Safety page.

• Installation Procedure Overview - bolting the thing on
• Setup/Integration - adjusting cable tension, speed controls, sensors, plate drop, plate angle, and more
• Troubleshooting - double picking, low vac threshold, timeouts, plate dents, cup marks, etc
• V3 Revisions - variations of these pickers
• Tools required
• Drawings