Resources
Spare List
A spare list for keeping essential flexo items close at hand, from tapes and blades to cleaning materials and common replacement parts.
How Spare List helps on a maintenance week
The spare list helps flexo teams keep the small but essential items close to the press. It covers tape, blades, cleaning materials, and routine replacement parts that can stop a packaging job when they are missing.
A useful spare list starts with the press model, web width, and the consumables that wear out first on your jobs. In South African plants, dust inland and moisture near the coast change how long tapes, blades, wipes, and sensors stay reliable. Stocking the right small parts matters most on packaging work where a missing blade clamp or roll of mounting tape can hold the unit.
Record the spare before it is fitted, not after the bin is empty. A photo of the old part beside its label, plus the unit number and date, makes reordering far easier during maintenance. Keep one printed list near the press and another with stores so operators and buyers are working from the same item names.
Press-side items worth stocking
The strongest spare list is built around stoppages that happen often, not around expensive parts that hardly move. Include doctor blades, chamber seals, tapes, filters, wash-up cloths, bearings, sensors, and the fasteners that suit your press. Where possible, note the size, hardness, width, or part code so the replacement matches what is running on press.
Check the spare list against your current plate work, anilox set, and ink system before ordering extras. If a part is failing repeatedly, write in through the contact form with the press name, unit position, and what happened just before the stop. Add timing marks, wear patterns, and any checks completed by the team so the fault is easier to trace.
- Mounting tapes by width and density
- Doctor blades logged by thickness
- Part photos kept with each entry
Stock checks for SA plants
Plants around Johannesburg often use more air-line filters, wipes, and cover strips because fine dust gets into guards and sensor points. Durban and Cape Town sites usually replace rust-prone fittings, cleaning cloths, and humidity-affected carton labels more often. Where stores work around courier cut-offs and planned outages, count low-stock items before a shutdown begins, not on the morning the press restarts.
Power interruptions can leave half-used materials open longer than planned, so inks, tapes, and wash-up consumables need condition checks before they go back into use. Older presses may also need a separate note for non-standard bolts, legacy seals, or modified brackets that do not match the manual. Keep those exceptions on the spare list in plain wording that stores can identify quickly.
Operated by Astros Marketing (Pty) Ltd from 2 Makro Place, Sunnyrock 1401.
Details to send with faults
Send the Spare List with part photos, machine timing, and the failures already checked. Keep the subject line specific to the press, unit, or item.
Log the spare requirement while the stoppage or service check is still fresh. Add the press name, unit position, part description, and any wear pattern so buyers and maintenance staff can trace the item without guessing. A job card and photo record help when stores asks why a blade, tape, sensor, or wash-up item must be kept in stock.