Friday 27 June 2014

Setting up information on Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

 

Many states in the USA require that sites record and report on their output of Volatile Organic Compounds and this requires a little extra data to be added in ColorPoint Manager.  The functionality to achieve this is in a free extension to CPM that is not included by default as most users have no need for it.  If you need this functionality but don’t see the functionality described below then contact Rexson and we will be happy to include the functionality for you.

The first thing to do is to add the types of VOCs you wish to track to the system.  To do this go the Admin menu and then to VOC and then VOC Types.

 

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The VOC types you need to enter will depend on what you wish to report and what state laws requires you be able to report on.  If possible the simplest course of actions is to as few VOC types as possible.  Some sites have only a single VOC type while others have several types such as Ink VOCs, Varnish VOCs etc. for each type of material they wish to report on.  In rare cases some sites will have a VOC type for every individual VOC they have to report on such as Ethyl Acetate but most state regulations do not require this level of detail. 

Once you have selected the VOC Types item in the menu then adding new VOC types is very similar to adding a new material.  The only things that you need to supply are a name and a code and a default specific gravity.

Once you’ve finished adding VOC types you need to go through each material and associate the VOC types you have created with the materials on the system.  To do this open a material and click the VOC button on the left hand side of the screen.  You will be presented with a screen that is much like the screen you see when creating a formula that will allow you to specify how much of the material is made up of various types of VOC.

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The percentage field refers to the % of weight (either US pounds or kilograms depending on your system settings) that the VOC in question takes up in the material.  So if you you dispensed a material that was entirely made up of a VOC then the percentage would be 100%.  The specific gravity field is inherited from the value you put into the VOC type field but can be modified by double clicking on the value.  The specific gravity will be either US pounds per gallon or kilograms per litre depending on your system settings.

Once you have modified all your materials to accurately reflect their VOC composition you can then start receiving stock batches of those materials in the normal way.  If you have already received stock batches for those materials and need to apply the changes then contact Rexson and will apply the changes to your existing dispense history.

ADDING VOC AREAS

If you need to report on VOC usage for a specific machine or area then you will need to both create the areas and assign them to any jobs that you create.  Adding a VOC area is very simple just go to the Admin menu item and then to VOC and VOC Areas.  Once on this screen you can add a VOC area by pressing the add button and providing a code and name for the area.  How many areas you need to add will be dictated by your reporting requirements.  If you need to report individually on each printing press then simply add one area for each machine you need to report on.

If you are tracking VOC usage by machine then you will need to double click each machine in the machines list (which you can open by going to Machines in the operations menu) and selecting the area associated with that machine.

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You can assign more than one machine to an area and if you are not interested in the other benefits of machine tracking then you can simply create a machine named after the VOC area you wish to track VOC usage for.

ASSOCIATING DISPENSES WITH VOC AREAS

Finally to associate dispenses with a VOC area you need to create a job to assign those dispenses to.  On the job you create you can select the machine that corresponds to the VOC area that you want dispenses assigned to that job to be recorded against.  If you are not planning to use jobs then you can create a job specifically to represent a VOC area and then just keep that job open though we generally recommend creating a new job per VOC area per month just to make record keeping easier.