AC servo vs. air driven presses

MultiHueMark · February 6th, 2011, 12:42 PM

What makes AC servo driven presses superior to air driven presses?
Is there energy savings to be had?
Is there more finite control?
Besides being quieter, what is the big advantage?
All press manufactures seem to be moving to AC servo operation. Why?
I just bought a good running all air 1993 M&R Challenger 10C/12S Revolver 31" stroke with adult, child, infant, sleeve & hat platens and no-shirt-detect for 10K in August. After 29 years of pulling a manual squeegee I wish I had
bought an auto decades ago!

spotcolorsupply · February 6th, 2011, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MultiHueMark

What makes AC servo driven presses superior to air driven presses?
Is there energy savings to be had?
Is there more finite control?
Besides being quieter, what is the big advantage?
All press manufactures seem to be moving to AC servo operation. Why?
I just bought a good running all air 1993 M&R Challenger 10C/12S Revolver 31" stroke with adult, child, infant, sleeve & hat platens and no-shirt-detect for 10K in August. After 29 years of pulling a manual squeegee I wish I had
bought an auto decades ago!

AC print heads give a much more powerful and consistent print stroke than air heads. Especially for four color process, specialty inks, and thick inks.

Servo index is all about speed. Servo motors can be instructed to Accelerate and decelerate. Air indexers have to impact a stopper of some sort to slow the print carriage.

A servo/AC press does offer better control at higher speeds than an air driven machine can offer, but at a significantly higher price in many cases.

Hope that helps