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Col-Tec Overseas
Horizontal collators are precision print-finishing machines. Minor mechanical, environmental, or setup issues can affect registration accuracy, station performance, and production speed. Dust contamination, gradual wear, and alignment drift can lead to misfeeds, registration errors, and unplanned stoppages if not addressed early.
Effective collator maintenance requires a structured programme covering routine cleaning, inspection, mechanical verification, and planned professional servicing. This preventative approach supports consistent output quality, protects critical components, and reduces avoidable downtime.
This guide outlines a practical maintenance checklist designed for commercial print and mailing environments.
Preventive maintenance reduces production risk by keeping sheet separation, set detection, and mechanical timing within acceptable operating conditions. In commercial environments, faults often present intermittently before becoming persistent, particularly when dust levels, stock changes, or shift patterns introduce variability.
Maintenance routines should confirm:
If misfeeds or registration errors recur across stations, checks should be traced back to operating conditions and fault history, rather than being corrected repeatedly without diagnosis.
This approach aligns with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) overview of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) [1]. PUWER requires work equipment to be suitable for its intended use, maintained in an efficient state, and inspected where safety depends on installation conditions or where deterioration could create dangerous situations.
Maintenance intervals should be set so that deterioration is identified and addressed before it creates a health and safety risk or causes avoidable disruption. HSE explains that not all work equipment requires formal inspection and that, in many cases, a quick visual check before use is sufficient [2]. Inspection is required where risks may arise from installation conditions, deterioration, or other factors, and inspection frequency should be determined through a risk assessment.
For horizontal collators, inspection and cleaning routines should reflect site conditions and operating demand, including:
Inspection outcomes should be recorded and retained until at least the next inspection. Although records do not have to be written, they should be stored securely and made available on request. Checklists should remain proportionate and equipment-specific, supporting effective maintenance planning rather than superficial, tick-box routines.
Routine operator-level checks stabilise feeding performance and reduce sensor-related faults. These tasks should be completed with the machine isolated and using materials approved for print-finishing equipment.
Daily and weekly checks should prioritise:
A visual inspection at the start of each shift should also identify loose fasteners, worn belts, or visible misalignment. Observations should be recorded to support trend monitoring and early intervention.
Monthly maintenance tasks should be completed by trained engineering personnel. These checks should focus on mechanical condition and performance stability, rather than surface cleanliness. They help identify gradual changes that operator-level inspections may not detect.
Key monthly checks typically include:
Lubrication should be applied precisely. Excess lubrication can attract contaminants, while insufficient lubrication increases friction and heat. Recording lubrication activity supports traceability and helps maintain consistent mechanical timing.
Planned servicing should form part of the maintenance programme for any collator operating in a commercial environment. Specialist servicing enables a deeper inspection of safety-critical and performance-critical components than routine production checks. This supports early identification of deterioration before it causes faults or unsafe conditions.
This aligns with Regulation 5 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 [3]. The legislation states that every employer shall ensure that work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair, and that where machinery has a maintenance log, the log is kept up to date.
Servicing should include calibration and verification tasks, along with mechanical inspection and planned replacement of wear components. This helps reduce misfeeds, registration errors, and unplanned stoppages.
A maintenance log should be used to identify trends, not to record tasks in isolation. When faults recur, entries should capture the operating context, including stock type, feeder settings, and whether the issue followed cleaning, lubrication, or adjustment. This supports faster diagnosis and more accurate service scheduling.
The HSE recommends keeping maintenance and inspection records where required to demonstrate effective control of work equipment risks [4]. In practice, this documentation helps engineering teams identify patterns such as repeated sensor faults, increasing misfeed frequency, or accelerated wear following changes in stock or production volume.
A practical maintenance log should record:
Regular review supports more accurate service planning and reduces reliance on reactive repairs.
When collator performance changes despite routine checks, in-house maintenance may no longer be sufficient. Persistent feeding faults, unexplained sensor errors, abnormal vibration, or repeated electrical issues should be treated as escalation points. These symptoms can indicate underlying mechanical or system-level faults requiring specialist diagnosis.
Col-Tec provides servicing and maintenance programmes for a wide range of collating systems and production configurations. Engineering support helps maintain alignment, verify calibration, and reduce avoidable downtime. Support arrangements can also align with lease rental options where production demand fluctuates or capital planning is constrained.
Call +44 (0) 1425 627755 or arrange a consultation to review and establish a preventative maintenance programme suited to your production requirements.
[1] The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), “Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER)”: https://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/puwer-overview.htm
[2] The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), “not all work equipment requires formal inspection”: https://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/inspection.htm
[3] GOV.UK, Legislation, “Regulation 5 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998”: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/2306/regulation/5/made
[4] The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), “recommends keeping maintenance and inspection records”: https://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/maintenance.htm
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