Inking number heads C&P

you need the softest rubber you can get for numbering or else the no. will hold the rollers away from the first few numbers on your machine. If you can, turn the numbering machine the other way so the rollers ink the no. first then fall down on the lower numbers. There are machines that have low plungers to help with this.

One other problem with numbering machines. If you run a C&P as is, with a heavy roller stripe, many numbering machines will ink up just fine (with plungers leading or trailing the roller).

Mine did, so I was surprised when I locked up a couple machines and the digit next to the plunger wouldn’t ink up, even with the machines in the preferred position. What happened?

Well, between when I ran numbering the last time (years ago) and now, I raised my rails (plastic pallet banding) to where I have about an 1/8”-3?16” stripe on a roller gauge. It’s great for printing linecaster slugs and plates, but numbering machines don’t like it at all. Aside from segmented or cut up rollers, I’m not sure of what to do at this point.

Just that a press that is optimized for printing, and especially for heavy impression or polymer plates, may not want to play with a numbering machine.

as your rollers age they get harder, when i order rollers i get the softest rubber i can, but after 4 or 5 years they seem to get harder then you will have problems inking the numbering machines.

Probably 28-30 Durometer for general printing. Dick is right about even softer for numbering. If you can find a numbering machine with the offset plunger that will strike off the printed sheet, you will get happy inking.

I think rollers should be more like 20 durometer for letterpress, but a roller company with letterpress experience like Ramco Roller Products would be the best source of this information. Ramco Roller Products is in the Yellow Pages of this site.

I wanted to thank all of you for the help my rollers were to hard I used a local rubber outfit in Everet Mass