TSB
screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: Spreading Ink on July 30, 2013, 01:06:21 AM
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We took the plunge and have bought an I-Image 3 DTS. After doing some math and some thinking about our work flow I decided to pull the trigger on this technology and can already (install is just officially starting tomorrow) see where it is going to benefit us in many way in spite of our large format all over printing. Many think this is about all we do, but reality is we have four presses - two of which can do all over work, but most of the time this work is regulated to only one press in our shop.
Saw it print the first screen tonight and am really excited to get this working for us!
I said it's the first M&R equipment, but we actually have a tri-lock that had been modified to fit our Stratus for several years now that was bought used.
All that said it is the first piece of M&R equipment we have 'officially' purchased and we're really looking forward to putting this to use!
So excited!!!!
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i love the direction M&R is going with this. They really upgraded the print heads and I think this piece of equipment is one of the best DTS machines out there.
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Dave
you are going to love it and see the benefits TODAY! welcome to the club...
sam
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damn!
how many screens do you use per day?
im in the early stages of proposing the i-Image 2 to the owners here. with just calculating film cost our ROI would take about 1.5 years.
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Duane, knowing how many screens you go through a day my advise would be to propose a unit that can image 2up (maybe thats what the 2 in I-Dot 2 means) Brad was skeptical about skipping the film as a QC step but I never really saw that as an issue
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Tony,
I am pretty sure the number signifies the number of print heads. You can have 1,2 or 3 print heads thus shortening the amount of time to image the screen.
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The number does indicate how many print heads are in the unit. There are 1, 2 and 3 print head models available. Each model increases the screen capacity per shift.
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Duane, knowing how many screens you go through a day my advise would be to propose a unit that can image 2up (maybe thats what the 2 in I-Dot 2 means) Brad was skeptical about skipping the film as a QC step but I never really saw that as an issue
we proof read the names and dates on tour dates but sometimes the band changes dates or venues. it can get confusing sometimes!
im curious if you print a screen and dont "need" to shoot it, can you wash the printed ink off or do you have to start all over and reclaim and coat again...?
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you need to reclaim it and start again...however it should not make it to the HOT folder until i has been seen by more than 2 people...
sam
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No, You can not wipe off the ink. But there is a preview in the RIP and in the Production software that allow you to double check your art. The Production software also has halftone preview that allows the true image to show (dots) and not a grayscale interpretation of it.
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here is a question sam...has the printer ever malfunctioned, like sometimes filmmaker can skip and start reprinting an image. Ever had anything like that?
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Brad
we have not experienced that.
we do about 20-25 screens a day.
sam
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cool, just wondering. sometimes digital stuff likes to get all screwy.
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Duane, knowing how many screens you go through a day my advise would be to propose a unit that can image 2up (maybe thats what the 2 in I-Dot 2 means) Brad was skeptical about skipping the film as a QC step but I never really saw that as an issue
we proof read the names and dates on tour dates but sometimes the band changes dates or venues. it can get confusing sometimes!
im curious if you print a screen and dont "need" to shoot it, can you wash the printed ink off or do you have to start all over and reclaim and coat again...?
Just as an FYI, wax ink system screens can be 'saved'. A bit of screen opener on a rag, wax wipes right off and screen can be re-imaged. Happens occasionally as we do final pre-flight as we are imaging screens.
~Kitson
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I've only had a weird hicup with printing a sep 2 times. About a month apart, but the same type of scenario. Doing a 1 color grayscale image and as a composite print but wanting to control the halftones. It would print part of the design, then stop spit it out. If I re-sent the screen it would print the rest but in a different spot on the screen. Went through several screens trying all the different things I could do in the rip, and in Illustrator before sending to the DTS. My fix. Taking that image, opening in Photoshop, I use Ultraseps v-2, running a basic greyscale sep run, then just using the black channel from that sep. Works awesome, and gives full control over the halftones. I think the rip get's confused trying to set halftone setting for rgb, then trying to make those rgb a composite print. At any rate, that is what we found to get around that, but other than that little hicup, I could never and would never got back to film printing after having this I-Image here for the last 7 months, it has literally improved our total pre-press process by 75% in efficiency and accuracy. Our customers notice the difference as well, which in the end is pretty freekin awesome!
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Your entire operation is about to change. Computer to screen, Tri-Loc, and a good press are the beginnings of outstanding production work flow. Look beyond these things though. Look at your entire system. Art, screens, pre press, etc. They all need to be tight. You really don't know what you're in for, but you will be so thankful you've made this investment. It looks like more and more people are seeing the benefits of these, so the support here will grow also. I am happy for you.
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Duane, knowing how many screens you go through a day my advise would be to propose a unit that can image 2up (maybe thats what the 2 in I-Dot 2 means) Brad was skeptical about skipping the film as a QC step but I never really saw that as an issue
How many does he go through? Our three head unit does over 350 screens in 8 hours.
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Duane, knowing how many screens you go through a day my advise would be to propose a unit that can image 2up (maybe thats what the 2 in I-Dot 2 means) Brad was skeptical about skipping the film as a QC step but I never really saw that as an issue
How many does he go through? Our three head unit does over 350 screens in 8 hours.
i print about 500 films per month
im working on calculating the number of screens per day, new jobs and reprints
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just remember on reorders take into account time to get film out and file back as well as line up if needed.
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just remember on reorders take into account time to get film out and file back as well as line up if needed.
if they can find the film!
just kidding, our filing system is decent - so many films its collapsing the metal shelving units. ill have to calculate replacement shelvings into the ROI too...
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What's film?
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Film is for the not so rich guy's. ;)
~Not so rich Guy
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Maybe one of these days I'll get to join the cool crowd, in the meantime, I'll keep on doing research and reading all the posts here about others' experiences with CTS.
I'm torn on wax versus WB systems. In a few months maybe there will be enough users here that we can discuss the pros and cons of the actual delivery system and I can make a better decision on which unit to go with when the time is right.
Congrats on your CTS by the way.
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Honestly we probably only go through on average about 70 screens per day on the average day with some days being higher. So I am sure some are asking why go with the I-Image 3? Well it's about being prepared for future growth and the overall time involved to prep each screen.
I don't look at the ROI on this as coming from film per se and we won't be able to totally get rid of film as long as we are printing all overs and some oversize jumbos (that won't work with the i-Image), but time savings alone very well may pay for the machine in either labor reduction or increased capacity and this is where I truly expect to see most of the ROI come from. Year to date we have spent about 6500 on film and there is no doubt there will be a significant savings there, but I think the real savings will come from areas that aren't readily apparent in a way that I can put numbers to until I have had the machine in production for a little while.
I am already quite impressed with the machine though and from what I have seen so far we were holding some halftones that were in the 1% range that we couldn't hold prior (we were holding between 3-5% before).
Is the I-Image 3 overkill for us at this time - maybe, but at what these machines run and with the growth of our business over the past few years it really seemed like it was worth the extra money to go with this unit rather than the Image 2 which would have been the only other one that was in consideration.
All of this and the fact that M&R was showing an i-Image 3 in Long Beach at the NBM show that had not been sold yet led us to buy this machine.
Love it already and we really aren't to a point to a point of making full utilization of it yet!
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planning for the future? That's crazy talk!!!