Windmill Suckers

I have been struggling the last two days to get my Windmill to pick up paper and feed it through - granted i’m only using bond/normal copy paper.

I manage to get one sheet through but then can’t get any further. I’ve played around with all the levers that previous posts have suggested with suction and i’ve followed the manuals instructions but i just can’t seem to work it out.

How do i know if i am opening up the suction bar or closing. Am i meant to hear a sort of whoosh sound? I have at one staged eliminated the sound all together but i thought i had closed them all off and no air was getting through.

Any words of wisdom?

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After some YouTube watching i figured it out and finally got it to pick up my paper.

Perhaps a dumb question but will the paper always sit in the same position? Ie the corner will always be in the bottom right hand corner? Or can you get the paper to sit flat bang in the middle or towards the left?

Just wondering.

you should hear that whoosh sound. the suckers should be open when they are opposite to the sucker bar . it takes practice to get the press feeding, but you should be able to run 20 lb . you must get the tilt of the sucker bar so you don’t pull doubles, check your manual and take your time, you should be ok. Dick G.

if you use gauges your stock will run to the left of the feeder, without the gauges you can run the stock in the center. with your gauges the sheets will register perfectly, running off gauges you can vary a little. Good Luck Dick G.

Hi, Kobes—

In general, the Heidelberg always feeds to the SE corner of the chase, and the grip and guide are in respect to that corner. The gripper bars open when the sheet reaches that position, allowing it to be placed by the guides in register.

The press can also be run without guides; this is called running “open” or “commercial”. The gripper bars retain their hold on the sheet from feed to delivery. Register is only approximate. Used this way, the paper to be fed is ordinarily moved to the right on the feed table. So in this sense, the paper is no longer at the bottom of the platen although it is still to the right hand side of the platen and chase.

Hope this helps a little, Brian