Method and arrangement for cleaning a part of a printing unit of an offset printing machine

Abstract

An apparatus and method is disclosed for the automatically controlled the washing of a part of a printing unit of an offset printing machine as a function of the ink consumed by the unit. The control of at least one washing device, which is assigned to one of the parts of the printing unit, is performed, in particular with respect to the washing frequency, as a function of characteristic values which are derived from functions of the printing unit and/or are generated for controlling these functions. In order to optimize the frequency of the washing operation and/or the type of washing operation, the ink consumption of the printing unit occurring during machine running is determined in accordance with at least one characteristic value of the ink metering, the frequency and/or type of washing operation is then determined from the amount of ink consumption.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.