The reaffirmation of two safety standards was announced by NPES, The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies and the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM).

B65/NAPIM 177.1-2007, Safety standard – Three-roll printing ink mills, which applies to all three-roll mills used in the printing ink manufacturing industry, establishes safety requirements for safety controls, operating procedures and the design of three-roll mills.

B65/NAPIM 177.2-2006, Safety standard – Printing ink vertical post mixers provides standardized guidance, advice and recommendations to both equipment designers and operators aimed at reducing the risk of personal injury during the operation of vertical post mixers.

"In-running nip accidents occur when the washup stick (in-running nip point guard) is not in the rear nip during roll cleaning… the NGSIS (Nip Guard Safety Interlock System) that is part of the B65/NAPIM 177.1- 2007 electrical package prevents this worse case accident," says Jon Hatz, President of Keith Machinery Corporation.  "B65/NAPIM 177.1- 2007 works; it is something that the committee should be proud of."

This work was completed by the ANSI-accredited B65 Committee, which consists of several subcommittees that address safety for printing press systems, cutting machines and stand-alone platen presses, as well as binding and finishing systems. NPES serves as the Secretariat to ANSI CGATS, ANSI B65 and the USTAG to ISO TC130 (Graphic Technology).

The B65/NAPIM standards are available for purchase from NPES.  For more information or to order, visit the NPES Standards Workroom at: http://www.npes.org/Programs/Standards-Workroom.aspx or contact Debbie Orf, NPES Assistant Director of Standards, at phone: 703/264-7229 or e-mail: [email protected].