When discussing t-shirt folding with business owners, the two most common questions are: "How much should it cost to fold a shirt?" and "How can I get my key personnel back to printing faster?"
As a screen printing shop gets larger each area of the business gets more complex. There are typically more employees, orders, tasks, steps, and overall more things that can get out of sync with each other. A company may double in size over the course of just a few years but the process or system that manages how things are done in an art department will often remain the same.
Deciding which dryer is the best for your screen printing operation can be a challenging decision. Asking the right questions is an ideal first step in figuring out which dryer will best fit your needs. The following are a few questions to get you started:
Tips to minimize downtime—and keep your crew productive until you're up and running again.
No matter how diligent you are with preventative maintenance, there is no way to avoid every equipment failure. But there are ways to be prepared when it does happen.
And while those new to screen printing have the most to learn, we'll cover a number of principles that far too many experienced screen printers fail to consider..
Every screen printing shop tries to run efficiently, but sometimes we get bogged down by the minutiae of day-to-day operations. So it’s important to set aside some time to analyze the systems in your screen printing department to make sure things are running smoothly.
Glen Carliss, M&R's Manager of Domestic Sales/Eastern Division covers many frequently asked questions in this informative post.
Thinking about stepping up to an automatic textile screen printing press? Glen Carliss, M&R's Manager of Domestic Sales/Eastern Division covers many frequently asked questions in this informative post.
Some years back, we helped an old friend at Athey Graphics set up an operation in a cute little resort town on a lake in Oklahoma. The area is called Monkey Island and sits on the shores of Grand Lake. (Now that's just fun to say‚ Monkey Island.)
Have you ever considered where we’d be without smart phones, tablets, personal computers or the Internet? In this digital age, we often take the technology that changes our lives and our businesses for granted. But what does “digital” mean to us as screen printers?
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 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!
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.
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.
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!
