Suckers for Heidelberg Platen

Hi

I’m new to running a Heidelberg platen 13x18, whic I have bought for die cutting. I’m trying to get it to reliably feed SRA3 sheets of 260gsm coated board. It’s working reasonably well but I am getting the odd sheet that is not transferring from the suckers to the gripper bar. It looks like the suckers are loosing the sheet before the gripper has grabbed it. The press has come with some small rubber suckers, which I am using. They are around 15-20mm diameter. The feed is more reliable when feeding A4 sized sheets so I am wondering if I just need a stronger more reliable “suck”. I am thereof thinking that some new slighter larger rubber suckers might help resolve this. Bare with me…..the question is:

Should I expect that larger rubber suckers (most I see for sale are around 30mm in diameter) would old the sheet more securely?

Thanks
Gary

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You might try running the feed pile a bit higher… the sooner the sheet is picked up, the more suction is available for holding.

OK, thanks. So much to learn and plenty of variables to explore. Pile height, blast height, tilt, suckers - its a great challenge for a newbie. :)

Lots of variables also means no two presses will run exactly the same, no two jobs will run exactly the same and no two operators will run a press the same way.

The pile height/advance and sucker bar tilt can be set too far and mark the paper, so there are limits.

Yes. At the moment I’m doing lots of observing, trying to see whats happening when it’s not quite right and then tweaking variables to try and correct. I’m actually loving it!