General > General Discussion and ???

Upgrades

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3Deep:
I know a lot of you upgrade your equipment, art programs etc when newer stuff comes out or when you just have to,  my old press needs a little love so I reach out to Anatol for some parts and the problem I having with them is they now make the Volt's which is all electric, and I think they don't stock many parts now for there older equipment.  This brings me to upgrades, what is a good time to ditch your old equipment at the very last moment or get ahead of the curve early, I'm one that really hates to keep purchasing equipment unless we just really have to.  I have to say it is really nice not having monthly payments, but I guess to make money you have to spend money.....  Pros/Cons

tonypep:
I remember having to entirely re-plumb our Anatols with all new airlines. At least at that time, they were using cheap grade air lines which had to replace out of pocket. Back then, I was not impressed with their service (that may have improved). In the earlier days of M&R

tonypep:
Ooops, any way M&R parts dept was pretty disorganized for a few ys. They were changing specs so fast that they apparently not properly documenting which models used  which solenoids etc.  I'd like to think that most equip manufacturers have addressed this. Now at the Image Network in Charleston (before they closed for good) the presses were rebuilt so many times they could have upgraded to newer/better machines for that same money....when they did finally close they were 25+ ys old and when the business was sold the presses were not of interest to the buyer and were scrapped.

mk162:
for us, it's about money.  If it pays for itself in less than 5 years, we'll look into it. If it can't, it's pretty much a non-starter. This is a guideline.

I had an embroidery machine that cost over $6k in repairs one year.  It also needed a $4k screen.  At that point, sell it and get something that doesn't have near the downtime, which also costs money.

Labor is a tough one, if an upgrade can replace an employee or prevent us from hiring one, that's something to look at.  Even base employees now are $40k a year.  Automation is looking better and better.

I'd rather be running our equipment, not fixing it.

3Deep:
 I had to re-plumb all the airlines under each head about 4 years ago, now it's a line here and there which is a pain but not a real problem since I bought rolls up graded airlines from another company,  I wouldn't mine replacing the press but I'd really have to justify the gains of a new press vs a new payment every month.

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