GET TO GRIPS / SAFETY IN PRINT The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reports slips and trips as the second highest accident type in the UK printing industry. This can be caused by leaking machinery as well as spillages of inks and solvents. To avoid the risk of injury or accidents caused by these leakages and spillages, the HSE recommends cleaning them up immediately. This sounds like common sense, but Mewa, a producer of textile cloths which can be used to keep a print shop clean and safe, offers some insight into some of the common places these mishaps can occur within print. “In lithography for example, numerous components such as the ink distribution rollers, printing plates, and press roller cleaning fixture/trays must be cleaned regularly,” the company explains. “The collected ink in the trays can be poured into a barrel for recycling or disposal, however, the remnants still need to be cleaned with additional wipes or solvents. Even blankets, used to mount onto the press, that have been washed several times, may need to be wiped down by hand when debris build-up occurs.” With this in mind, it is recommended to keep wipes to hand at all times to mop up any dripping ink or oil whilst running a busy production floor. Whilst most workshops will use rags or disposable blue roll to mop up inks and other liquids, Mewa explains that these can be less effective at absorbing large amounts of liquid and their lack of reusability can be harmful to the environment. A Full-Service System Another consideration is the use of solvents in a print shop as these can sometimes cause an additional hazard, as Mewa explains: “Excessive exposure to solvents can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, and drowsiness. To prevent this, the HSE recommends avoiding leaving contaminated rags lying around, and to use sealed containers to store solvent-contaminated waste.” The full-service system from Mewa means users will always have the right cloth to hand with used cloths collected, professionally washed, checked for wear and tear, and returned for re-use. Mewa’s SaCon safety container, specially designed for storing used cleaning cloths is described as an integral part of the service system. “It ensures safe handling of soiled cloths, ideal for those containing any hazardous substances, such as solvents, which may require specific conditions for storage and transport.” Safe Cleaning of Presses When it comes to cleaning the presses themselves, the HSE has defined safe systems of work for press cleaning. These include inch-stop-lock-cleaning with the press unit being isolated with limited movement using the inch button to enable the operator to clean exposed cylinders. On this, the HSE says: “On multi-operator presses, the person cleaning must be able to ensure that the press remains isolated so that it is not possible for another person to cause the press to move unexpectedly.” The second is ‘inch-stop-clean’ where cylinders are rotated to expose the section of cylinder surface to be cleaned. With this method, the HSE recommends that the cleaning cloth must be held clear of the cylinder while it is rotating and not applied until the cylinder is stationary. “For machines with a true or limited inch control, you may need to push the control button several times to expose enough of the cylinder surface to clean,” the HSE says. “Multi-person cleaning is acceptable using this system only where zoned print unit controls are provided, ie cylinder movement at each print unit can occur and can be controlled independently of the rest.” The final suggested system is ‘slow crawl cleaning’ where the cylinder rotates at very slow speed and the cleaning cloth is applied with movement controlled using ‘hold-to-run slow crawl’ or ‘continuous slow crawl’ controls. KEEPING YOUR PRINT SHOP CLEAN With slips and trips amongst the highest accident types in the UK printing industry, according to the UK Health and Safety Executive, we look at how Mewa’s solutions can help avoid these 46 July / August 2023 - Issue 343 www.printmonthly.co.uk ▲The HSE recommends cleaning up spillages and leakages immediately to avoid hazards such as trips and slips
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