DIG is currently doing a complete rebuild of an S&S ZLA at their works in Leiston, UK. It is one of the biggest projects undertaken by DIG and involves 5 DIG engineers for a period of 4 months.

The S&S ZLA will be stripped to its side frames and all worn components will be replaced. The entire machine will be cleaned and repainted.

3 FIT AUTOFlex doctor chamber blade systems will also be retrofitted to the machine, in place of the current scraper blade system. The customer already has 4 AUTOFlex doctor chamber blade systems in operation at one of their plants and are very happy with the ease of use, ink metering, wash-up times and ink recovery being obtained. For this reason they have decided to retrofit the FIT AUTOFlex chambers onto the rebuilt S&S.

All electronics will also be replaced, with a new main panel and drives being built, with Alan Bradley components replacing the obsolete Struthers & Dunn electronics.

All calliper and nip adjustments are also being motorised. Previously these were hand set.

Furthermore, a Pacesetter computer set-up system is also being retrofitted to control 25 axis. This means that all the motorised axes on the machine will now be set automatically in less than 2 minutes.

The combination of the Pacesetter and AUTOFlex will allow automatic set-up and colour change of the machine in less than 10 minutes, and with minimal operator involvement.

Tony Newson, technical director of DIG, says "By using the robust S&S chassis, and retrofitting new electronics and a state of the art ink metering system, a 16 year old machine is being brought up to the specification and capabilities of a brand new machine for a about 1/3 of the price of an equivalent spec new machine. This makes the project a sound financial and engineering investment with a good pay back."