TSB
screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: LuckyFlyinROUSH on March 04, 2015, 11:18:22 PM
-
We pulled the trigger this morning...
I-Image ST - 3 print head...
Sent a 22k down payment check...then got an email for an entire anatol press for 22k...made me laugh. It makes me nervous to drop 60k on a machine that doesn't actually print the shirts.
Anyone got some pointers on things that I need to do, or make sure I ask for? I asked to make sure it was filled with the D2 ink from the factory as I read some posts on that subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UifJ3t6ziKs]
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UifJ3t6ziKs (http://[url)[/url]
-
Congrats! All new machines come with 1 ltr. This is a starter bottle. techs use that to do their testing and we end up using about a qtr of that or less during install testing.
-
You are going to love it.
-
Ours has changed everything for the better. and if you didnt have a trilock before, get it now. it will pay for itself in a matter of months.
-
We got a trilock pallet in anticipation of going DTS. That was a major reason for buying it was setup times!
Dan - We need to get you paid for that leprechaun art btw. - Has anyone calculated their average ink cost per screen....it seems expensive! Can we request you to do the install, or are you booked out till june haha?
-
ST for us has really made it possible to take jobs in on short notice. We are still a pretty small shop and it just make sense its really changed our total process. Best of luck with it.
-
Best thing we ever did, your curve will be your biggest obstacle, and its not tough, just have to find the one that works in your shop.
-
I run the CTS, a step(or 2) down from the ST...you will love it. I was noticing the other day how our halftones are KILLING it now. They were good before, but they are so much better now.
-
Help me out, why are the curves different for different shops?
It's all the same heads, inks and "media" essentially.
-
different emulsions are the biggest challenge. the halftones on film won't change from emulsion to emulsion, it's a matter of dialing times in and if it can hold the detail.
also, humidity matters more, dryness of screens, number of print heads, density of ink deposit and so on. it's by no means plug and play.
-
mK62 got many of the reasons. In addition, each machine guts are going to be tweaked slighty different.
Same reason each shop can have different curves using the same RIP and Epson for another shop. You can use one master curve setting, send that out to all printers and they use it as is, tweak it a tad or end up choosing not to use it at all. I find now, that your shops lean towards using a curve that was close to what you (we're getting) on film just because it's more accommodating to how your artist have been used to when building the art. They compensate here and there in anticipation of gain before it ever gets to the RIP.
I have started out with a custom curve of my own (but only having it look nice) but not done with a densitomitor. Later I was able to see what a true calibrated curve looked like and mine was close, but not 100% accurate of course. I was thrilled I was able to start people out with the best possible curve then found out people would switch back to something slightly less than the densitomitor curve as well as some were going back to default. The default (no curve at all) is drastic. It fills in a lot, (but some prefer that) over the densitomitor results. Go figure. That's why I assume is more of a comfort thing and not everyone wants what it truly should be.
NOTE, as we found out with a few customers during testing an old job with the new curve, don't use a brand new custom curve on old jobs. The differences can be drastic (lighter) in the seps and the customer will think it wasn't printed right on the new reorder.
-
We got a trilock pallet in anticipation of going DTS. That was a major reason for buying it was setup times!
Dan - We need to get you paid for that leprechaun art btw. - Has anyone calculated their average ink cost per screen....it seems expensive! Can we request you to do the install, or are you booked out till june haha?
Would love to come visit. You can request me but they do schedule by location and feasibility first. Some have and I've not been able to.
The ink ranges from approx. 1000 prints to 2000 prints and in some cases, up to 3000 prints per ltr depending on the type of work you do. All solid letters will use more ink per screen. The cost compared to other options is great from what I've
heard. .05 in the (best case scenario) compared to what your cost are with film and time to produce that film is a small fraction.
(Edited for a more accurate average ink cost).
-
We pulled the trigger this morning...
I-Image ST - 3 print head...
Sent a 22k down payment check...then got an email for an entire anatol press for 22k...made me laugh. It makes me nervous to drop 60k on a machine that doesn't actually print the shirts.
Anyone got some pointers on things that I need to do, or make sure I ask for? I asked to make sure it was filled with the D2 ink from the factory as I read some posts on that subject.
Let me tell you something brother, 3 years into CTS and there is no looking back. The fact that you signed the deal already puts you ahead, once you have a week with that bad boy you are going to be on cloud 9. I recently helped "wake" a guy up in a neighboring town to us with CTS, he was dead set against it. Now, you could not even pay him to go back to film. You will love it dude!!!
-
i sometimes fell like I want to punish the guys(for fun) and have film days...just to make them appreciate the CTS.
-
Thanks for all the info! Hopefully our tech will know how to adjust the curve for our emulsion. We are using Chromablue, has been the best emulsion for the work we do.
I absolutely hate films...Filing them, finding them, burning them. Ugh. I cannot wait until we have everything digital!
-
Day 2 of our instal today. We have been using CCI VPR and Chromablue. Seem like the Chromablue will have a little more latitude. VPR on a 355 exposed in .5 sec. Didn't seem real until we washed it out
-
Day 2 of our instal today. We have been using CCI VPR and Chromablue. Seem like the Chromablue will have a little more latitude. VPR on a 355 exposed in .5 sec. Didn't seem real until we washed it out
Don't need the latitude. Figure out what works for you and go with it. It's not going to change. We have some people doing your setting on this emulsion.
-
Sounds good, just hard to wrap my head around. As always Rich your techs are always top notch.
-
i sometimes fell like I want to punish the guys(for fun) and have film days...just to make them appreciate the CTS.
Now that's funny!! :D
-
One of my artists (a Mac guy all the way) seems to always be griping about the PC and rip on the STE. I got tired of it and told him I was going to order film and they can start doing it that way. (We have six artists and I think 2 of them have done film, everyone else has been "spoiled" with CTS) He shut up when I said that.
-
the downside of the system is you are stuck with the supplied RIP, you can't test drive them and choose the one you want.
-
but the next one up from the one you are running, IS AWESOME!
-
Night and day between the 2 units and the rips for sure!! Just did some jobs today using Danny G's curve and verrrrry happy ;D
-
Night and day between the 2 units and the rips for sure!! Just did some jobs today using Danny G's curve and verrrrry happy ;D
Glad I could help someone out :P :P :P
Been working on another curve for about 3 weeks now that is showing some serious promise.... Playing with some other things outside of the "curve" window and I've figured out some interesting things that is really helping my dot quality ;D
-
Sounds like I might have to trouble you for that curve and test it out!
Sounds like my guys will change their tune once we get this in and running. They are all old and stuck in their ways...Don't want to try water base, don't want to use anything besides 160 mesh, etc.
-
It's here! Even the dogs like M&R!
-
Nice! Congrats!
Let me know if I can help in any way.
-
Probably voided my warranty showing you this Alex, but here is the Starlight mounted vertically like I asked about. Now literally all we have to do is lean the screen against the retrofit kit (mounted some wood blocks a little taller than a screen in there) and hit start.
It's almost finished. Have a few more braces to add on so it can't get hit with a run away cart or something.
Used an old piece of dryer rubber heat shield to shield the operator from the rest of the LEDs.
-
that is cool, got me thinking about mine.
-
It's here! Even the dogs like M&R!
Ha, I hope those dogs are there when I'm there. Her'es mine. They are a tad embarrassed but everyone's gotta do what they gotta do for a meal. LOL.
-
We love dogs, especially gsds! The older black/tan can come Monday if ya want. The younger rescue needs some training. They get to come on Fridays/weekends when noone else is usually there.
-
i have wanted to test out a better RIP since it's a stock epson printer. I couldn't get the trial of FilmMaker to download(the one for wide format inkjets)
-
i have wanted to test out a better RIP since it's a stock epson printer. I couldn't get the trial of FilmMaker to download(the one for wide format inkjets)
The i-image ST is not Epson based. Just a FYI
-
I knew that, I have the I-image cts...the rip is a bit tricky.
-
Feel free to call or tech support with questions on the rip.
One thing to think about if trying different rips out.
We had the I-block rip written to communicate with the Epson in a very specific manner as to not trip up any of the various "epsonisms".
This does not mean another rip can not do the same, we just wouldn't know how to support it.
-
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=I1aV3C-owpM (https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=I1aV3C-owpM)
updated
-
Try this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u4Nshp1AiE&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u4Nshp1AiE&feature=youtu.be)
-
any issues with that and having all that extra UV scattering around the room?
-
any issues with that and having all that extra UV scattering around the room?
Doesn't LED light diffuse (or whatever the proper term for losing its super exposing power is) at very short distances?
-
Yes, inverse sqaured.
Evey time you double the distance you lose four times yhe light energy.
With the effective rate on our Starlight at 5/8-3/4" you catch the drift. .. at 1.5" it will take four times as long to expose
-
Yes, inverse sqaured.
Evey time you double the distance you lose four times yhe light energy.
With the effective rate on our Starlight at 5/8-3/4" you catch the drift. .. at 1.5" it will take four times as long to expose
Your posting, guess that means you still have your head!
-
... and I learn a bit of new information every day :) now I don't have to close the lid on my exposure unit anymore when burning i-image created screens :)
-
Yes, inverse sqaured.
Evey time you double the distance you lose four times yhe light energy.
With the effective rate on our Starlight at 5/8-3/4" you catch the drift. .. at 1.5" it will take four times as long to expose
Alex,
I think this is the missing analogy in prior LED conversations on the board, I bet Mr Hoffman would have sold a few more units if people better understood why M&R light array might be better than others. My thought is are a greater volume of lower powered bulbs a better solution than fewer but more powerful bulbs...or is it a draw??
-
No
I was simply stating our leds lose their effective range quickly bc they are so close. No need to worry about the little light we saw in the video.
In reference to how we lay out the panel and the leds we use, Yes this is done for very specific reasons. on layout, reflector angle and strength.
-
New video. Big thanks to Dan to getting us up and running. Gone through a good 60 screens already. Seems to be about one every 50secondsish. If we kept it up...700 screens per shift? (10 hour days). Not too shabby! Crazy difference from where we were...and don't even get me started on new press setup times with tri lock....
Get to do some tweaking tomorrow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UifJ3t6ziKs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UifJ3t6ziKs)
-
It's amazing how far we've come with technology. I’m anxious to see where we are in 10 years.
Guys, and gals, this is another one of those young screen print business prodigy's. Wish I had what he does when I was his age.
-
any issues with that and having all that extra UV scattering around the room?
Doesn't LED light diffuse (or whatever the proper term for losing its super exposing power is) at very short distances?
Update! So we thought that this would be the case. However You can sit a screen up on the I-image where it is sitting...and at 4 seconds it will start to expose it....At 20" away from the unit you can almost expose a screen. Front rinses out perfectly, back of screen starts to be able to be blown off. Just tells you how much light this starlight puts out...its Fn awesome.
SO! If you are blasting out huge spot colors all day, you won't have a problem. If you are printing half tones I would wait to burn something on the starlight until the screen is all the way inside the machine, or if there isn't a screen on it. It may barely effect your screen on the I-Image if you are scared about it, but we went through about 100 screens after we adjusted our exposure times with help from Dan and didn't have any problems!
New subject: If you are buying an I-Image from M&R make sure you request Dan for the install. He not only has the tech training to install the unit, but the art background to make sure you get the most bang for your buck. I can't express the gratitude we have for the detailed explanations he gave my guys about how things work, and why they need to be that way to get the best quality print on press. $2400 or whatever install bill was worth every penny!
-
Appreciate the Kudo's Lucky,
It's very tough to get requested and actually be available at that time also. We are booked early but all attempts are made to accommodate customer request.
Also, I'll note that each and every tech is 100% qualified to do the job required of installs. In fact, the others are "more" experienced at the troubleshooting or inner program workings than I am. I feel we each have our own intense skillset and as a whole, we utilize each others skills very well as s team. For me, I just happen to have more of an art background than a DTG or DTS background and can relate to art needs deeper than most. That's probably true if I were to work for an Ink Co, a chemical Co or a mesh Co. Those other guys have had careers as Printer Techs in some way, before coming to M&R so they really are far beyond me skillset as it pertains to the machine, but I can dance just as well in that area as needed. Where I lack, they help me pick up the slack. I have much appreciation and respect for those guys.
I appreciate the Kudo's for me, but didn't want anyone to walk away thinking they have to get me only. ;)
The art topics I am able to go through are above what is needed for installs.
Thanks!!
Dan