As you may know, we work with a number of western wear companies and brands, which is probably not all that unusual seeing as though we are located here in the Colorado West. One such brand is Stetson. You might recognize the label from cowboy hats, boots and woven garments, among other items, especially if you are a cowboy or country boy (like me).
With the eminent arrival of the spring also comes the outdoor spring sports season. We found ourselves gearing up to print on those shrinking, dye migrating, stretching, bleeding nightmare poly fleece garments. Sounds like fun doesn’t it?
Screens are the foundation upon which every screen-printed garment is built. Nothing you haven't heard before, right?
Layout options for multi-disciplinary shops
The Printing Industry Exchange defines color sequence, also called print order or rotation, as the order in which inks are printed. This multi-color print sequence seems simple enough, but how it is determined is a little more complicated.
In a recent meeting with one of our larger and long-time clients that manufactures several branded clothing lines that we participate in creating, we discussed topics including future line development, pricing, production schedules and the project we will share with you here. Our customer interrupted the business-as-usual conversation by paging one of his salespeople who then joined us in the conference room. Our new friend, we learned, tragically lost his young daughter, Amanda and recently had set up a fundraiser/charity event and fun run in her name called Miles of Smiles. Our client had designed a cute image to be printed on the front and back of performance running shirts. If the cause wasn’t reason enough to get in on this project, thinking of our own daughters sealed the deal.
n the sign business the lenticular printing process has been around for over a decade and is generally referred to as an optical enhancement to conventional printing that transforms a hard copy poster or sign into three dimensional or animated version of itself. Lenticular imaging utilizes a...
The Diamondback R Series is our first auto press, and it is the best thing we have ever done here at Showdown Merch. Matched up with the Mini Sprint 2000 and the Red Chili's, we are able to triple our workload easily. This press is the easiest press to set up and do a large order with, and take down is a breeze.
Amazing service on such a great product.
Any shops out there can feel free to give us a call at (403) 887-3388 if you need any other reviews on this product.
The Sprint 3000 is superb and we are really, really happy with it. We've got the recipes dialed in for our inks now and it's running great. We have noticed improvements in the finish on our plastisols, too. They seem to be coming through much softer. Assuming it's because we are much more efficiently curing than with the electric curers!
We have been using our new I-Image STE for about 2 weeks now and it works great. Installation and training was a breeze, could not have been easier. It is the biggest time saver we have ever added to our process. We are printing and exposing screens in less than 90 seconds. Not only does it eliminate film cost completely, it produces screens faster and reduces setup time at the press. On top of that we are holding greater detail than ever before.
Once again M&R proves why they are the leader when it comes to printing equipment. Great job guys!
Our new i-Image ST is the biggest improvement to prepress we’ve ever seen. It’s eliminated our need for film, and unlike film, digital images are easy to store and retrieve, making blown-screen replacement a snap.
i-Image ST has improved our screen quality, increased screen-generation speed, and reduced cost. Screen production is way up because we’ve cut exposure times by 75%. And i-Image has virtually eliminated post-processing screen touch-ups. We could never produce screens of this quality—or at this speed—the conventional way. Our CTS screens are unmatched.
Multi-screen jobs come out perfectly registered, and since i-Image ST pre-registers screens for Tri-Loc, our entire prepress process, from screen prep to registration, has been cut dramatically.
Our i-Image ST will probably end up being one of the fastest returns on investment we’ve ever had.
We have had our Gauntlet III in production for nearly 3 months and have been thrilled with the machine. We have already put over 120,000 impressions on the machine and it is still going strong. We have found that the individual off-contact for each printhead helps with various printing techniques. It is also a plus to be able to adjust in 1/16” increments when needed. Our first job was a 9-color on dark apparel with a 17” print stroke and one flash. We were able to run the machine comfortably at 920 pieces per hour. The addition of the laser for print placements has saved us valuable time where we used to mark our pallets with a T-Square. The touchscreen interface is very user friendly and easy to make adjustments when needed.
Having a built-in maintenance schedule [M&R’s Maintenance Minder™] for the machine is another perk and allows management to easily assure that the presses are being properly maintained. We have not had any problems to date with the machine but are at ease knowing that all parts that we could ever need are able to be overnighted to us.
Overall, we have seen an increase in our production numbers due to the efficiencies gained with the newest technology on the market. We are able to run as fast as we can clear a screen and dry our underbase.
Simply put, the Gauntlet III is a beast and is built to run 24/7/365.
