Print and packaging

Pumping adhesives, cold seal coatings, primers and other lacquers creates challenges for some pumps. Viscosity and stickiness can impact on accuracy and flow rate and can cause foaming and other product degradation.

Watson-Marlow peristaltic pumps offer an exceptional level of reliability and accuracy when transporting viscous fluids in print and packaging duties. The design of our pumps provides:

• No valves, seals or glands to clog or become blocked
• Smooth and gentle low shear flow eliminating foaming
• Rapid change-over between fluids
• Quick and easy cleaning and tube change

Cross contamination is one of the main causes of downtime in printing. Changing from one lacquer to another, for example, involves a rigorous cleaning routine to ensure quality of print is maintained. This can be a problem for diaphragm pumps where glands, seals and valves in the flow path are prone to clogging, and cleaning is labour intensive.

The design of our peristaltic pumps means the tubing is the only part to come into contact with the lacquer. Cleaning involves a simple straight-through flushing of the tubing and, when necessary, changing the tube is a rapid and simple task. This cuts changeover times and ensures maximum pump availability.

The printing industry is under continual pressure to deliver high quality print, ever more quickly and competitively. Downtime between print runs costs money. Peristaltic hose and tube pumps from the Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions provide the performance and reliability the print industry needs. Features of our pumps include:

• Rapid changeover with no pump cleandown required
• Total fluid containment – eliminating risk of cross contamination
• Low shear handling – so no foaming
• Self-priming and dry running
• Reversible flow – eliminating waste and speeding changeover

Other positive displacement pumps can cause foaming of inks, coatings and adhesives which results in inferior quality print. The low shear design of our positive displacement pumps ensures gentle handling. There no seals, valves or diaphragms in the flow path that can clog, offering the highest reliability and lowest maintenance.

Pumping inks and coatings

Inks and coatings can be shear sensitive and have varying levels of viscosity. Watson-Marlow peristaltic pumps are the ideal choice to ensure the smooth, accurate and reliable flow of inks and coatings without the risk of foaming or clogging. This minimises product waste and drastically reduces costly press downtime for pump maintenance. Key features of our pumps include:

• Low shear
• Self-priming and dry running 
• No moving parts in the flow path
• Quick and easy to clean
• Minimal downtime for tube changes

Where traditional pumps can become clogged due to the highly viscous nature of inks and coatings, the design of our peristaltic pumps means the only part to come into contact with the product is the tubing. This allows unrestricted flow and eliminates the risk of clogging and blockages.

Cleaning between print runs involves nothing more than flushing out, and the ability to reverse flow minimises product wastage. Changing the tubing is a quick and simple process and doesn't involve press downtime. In addition as no ink or coating comes into contact with the pump the risk of cross contamination is eliminated.