Alphaliner insert dog ear problems

[Cody]

Hello my fellow post press brotherin. We have a Muller Martini Alphaliner and for the most part is a really kick*** machine but it can be a dog earing mother sucker at times. Does anyone else have any problems with the inserts dog earing as it pulls around the hopper drum on their Alphaliner? I have had some luck not running sucker cups on the outer suckers, but that is only on thin inserts. I've tried putting the arms that lift the back of the insert up, i've tried putting the belly plate in and out or in between, i've tried putting the insert to one side so it doesn't hang over the hopper drum, but I still haven't figured out the magic bullet or bullets.Any ideas???


                  Thanks, Cody

[Angel Arrabal]

Hello my fellow post press brotherin. We have a Muller Martini Alphaliner and for the most part is a really kick*** machine but it can be a dog earing mother sucker at times. Does anyone else have any problems with the inserts dog earing as it pulls around the hopper drum on their Alphaliner? I have had some luck not running sucker cups on the outer suckers, but that is only on thin inserts. I've tried putting the arms that lift the back of the insert up, i've tried putting the belly plate in and out or in between, i've tried putting the insert to one side so it doesn't hang over the hopper drum, but I still haven't figured out the magic bullet or bullets.Any ideas???


                  Thanks, Cody

Hi Cody, I sent you a PM.

[rivertown]

Been running Alphaliner for almost 17 yrs now.  Been my experience the dog ears come mostly from the iserts hanging up on the left or right side of the pocket.  Seems better when you have 2 suckers in the middle.  The gray guides help sometimes.   If you have inserts that are already curled on the side, shuold be run with the curl down.

[Dave Paschall]

I second with Mark's suggestions. You are at the mercy of the machine with this problem. Sometimes you just have to slow down a bit to help equal the playing field. My biggest enemy on this machine was static on slicks! some products especially the thin stuff just does not want to cooperate.

[james fields]

I know this sounds nuts but try some static guard helps me some times.

[Cody]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I actually did see a couple of feeders where the belt adjustments were maxed out and the insert would contact the bracket that was actually for the belt coming from the feeder before. I changed those belts and now the insert clears thje bracket by a large margin. Hopefully that will cut down some of our issues. When Muller was here installing the machine, they did mention some places taping a downy drier sheet to the bottom of the feeder. I think i'll try some sort of anti-static spray, sheet or some other form. I would like to get a hold of some of these marketing people and strangle the hell out of them for some of the stupid A!! ideas they come up with. But that's a different post. Anyway, thanks again for the ideas and i'll let you know how the anti-static thing works.

[Dave Paschall]

I know this sounds nuts but try some static guard helps me some times.

LOL! James, interesting that you suggested this because we did use it frequently on the entrance to the pocket wheel at times. As I mentioned earlier with some insert packs with thin stuff static would float it right off or it would stick as the pack was going into the pocket. It actually worked well to solve the problem runs.