I-image STE

[tancehughes]

Wow is just the only word to say. I am drooling over this machine. I am going to be running numbers while on the plane trying to justify getting one of these (hopefully I can). I can see us saving SO much time in pre-press and my theory right now is that we would be able to hold off on hiring for much longer due to getting more "bang for our buck" out of our current employees".

Biggest flag right now for me is that we simply don't run as many screens as most of those that have these machines. However, if we keep growing at the pace we have for the past few years I don't see why we wouldn't be in the position to get one in the next year or so.

Anyone with CTS running fewer than 40 screens a day out there? I'd love to talk with you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GKitson]

You can do an easy ROI justification at 40 when you look at all of the 'other' savings associated with DTS workflow.

For many shops improved set up times alone justify the investment.

You need to do a site visit to a DTS shop to fully understand.

You are welcome at my place anytime.

~Kitson


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tancehughes]

Thanks Greg, it was nice to meet you briefly at Kings. I would absolutely love to visit your shop. Maybe I'll have to get a trip planned this year!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bimmridder]

My door is open as well. But Greg's place is a lot nice than mine

[DannyGruninger]

My shop is probably one of the smaller shops out there with dts. We do less then 40 screens a day on average so like you I was hesitant to make the jump to dts. If your an owner operator like I am I would strongly suggest dts as the time savings you will see through your entire work flow will allow you to work more on the business gaining new clients. You wont be watching press ops struggle with setups ever. Dts maximizes press time which is the name of the game we are in. Like everyone else has offered your more then welcome to come visit and see what we have going.

[Doug S]

For all you dts users is the registration exact when you get the screens to press or do you still have to make adjustments or is it just occasionally?  Also, if you went 3 or 4 days not needing it would you have problems with heads clogging or do they have an interval cleaning they go through to avoid that problem.   I'd definitely be one of the smaller shops to get one and more than likely a used one. 

[bimmridder]

I have a CTS unit, and on one of my three presses, the newest, I have dead on probably 85% of the time. I can handle a micro on the fly. The older presses aren't as good, but still....We're doing up to 8 or nine color set ups in well under fifteen minutes. 4-6 color jobs in five minutes. You HAVE to remember, CTS is PART of the system. Even with CTS there is a small human factor. And your screens and press(es) play a big part. All of them have to be in top shape to reap the benefits. I know when we're busy, we'll be doing a ten hour shift and on three autos we will do 40-45 set ups. Lots of small runs. Ton of set ups. Ain't no way I'd be doing that without CTS, good, presses and screens. And good PEOPLE!

[Doug S]

I have a CTS unit, and on one of my three presses, the newest, I have dead on probably 85% of the time. I can handle a micro on the fly. The older presses aren't as good, but still....We're doing up to 8 or nine color set ups in well under fifteen minutes. 4-6 color jobs in five minutes. You HAVE to remember, CTS is PART of the system. Even with CTS there is a small human factor. And your screens and press(es) play a big part. All of them have to be in top shape to reap the benefits. I know when we're busy, we'll be doing a ten hour shift and on three autos we will do 40-45 set ups. Lots of small runs. Ton of set ups. Ain't no way I'd be doing that without CTS, good, presses and screens. And good PEOPLE!

Thanks for the reply,  I have a 2010 sportsman e and I notice sometimes that the screen holders will kick the screens a small amount when locking them in so I can see that as being a problem.  What about the heads clogging when it's not in use for an extended period?  We have a vinyl printer we leave on and set it to auto clean every 10 hours to keep the ink moving.  I just didn't know whether or not the cts units have the same feature.  I'd be worried about that especially during the winter when we are really slow if it didn't.

[bimmridder]

I can't speak o the M&R unit yet. I have a wax system now. We go to a stand by mode nightly. Purge the system in the morning after warming up, and off to the races. If we are down more than a few days (long holiday weekend) we will shut down the machine. Again, after warm up and purge, ready to run.

[244]

I have a CTS unit, and on one of my three presses, the newest, I have dead on probably 85% of the time. I can handle a micro on the fly. The older presses aren't as good, but still....We're doing up to 8 or nine color set ups in well under fifteen minutes. 4-6 color jobs in five minutes. You HAVE to remember, CTS is PART of the system. Even with CTS there is a small human factor. And your screens and press(es) play a big part. All of them have to be in top shape to reap the benefits. I know when we're busy, we'll be doing a ten hour shift and on three autos we will do 40-45 set ups. Lots of small runs. Ton of set ups. Ain't no way I'd be doing that without CTS, good, presses and screens. And good PEOPLE!

Our unit does have a standby mode. We have left the unit in standby for weeks and after startup it is perfectly fine.

Thanks for the reply,  I have a 2010 sportsman e and I notice sometimes that the screen holders will kick the screens a small amount when locking them in so I can see that as being a problem.  What about the heads clogging when it's not in use for an extended period?  We have a vinyl printer we leave on and set it to auto clean every 10 hours to keep the ink moving.  I just didn't know whether or not the cts units have the same feature.  I'd be worried about that especially during the winter when we are really slow if it didn't.

[Doug S]

Thanks for the info everyone.

[alan802]

If I were you Tance, I'd trade in the DB, package a DTS with an auto that will run at a higher production rate than you can physically load and with that combination you'll never need more than 3 guys running production until you're doing 2,000 jobs per year and WELL into 7 figures in sales.  Those numbers will be from a shop that doesn't do much contract work but handles the every day person off the street and the run of the mill business in town needing shirts for their employees.  Obviously the 2K and 7 figure numbers only apply to a shop like ours with our current job characteristics.  If you do nothing but 1 to 2 color jobs all day and don't ever see yourself doing 40 screens per day, even 4-5 years from now then I'd look elsewhere but I think your average job is probably similar to ours.

We're getting closer, and I do not want to add a second auto or another employee until we're so smothered in work that we're missing deadlines.  I think maximizing your production capabilities while maintaining just one automatic is the best route, but that's just my opinion.  I think adding support machinery (DTS, regi system, high output expo unit) until all methods are exhausted before buying that second auto is the way to go but I know there are other opinions.  Others choose to get that second auto much sooner than I would but I still respect that idea even though I'd do it differently.

I just wish the costs of DTS would come down a bit.   

[ebscreen]

Indeed maximizing usage of a single press is always desirable. Second auto for us was as much production
as it was peace of mind. Haven't ever had a machine down for more than an hour, but if we went down hard with one press
I'd have a heart attack. Redundancy is key for sleeping well at night. We have multiples of everything except a dryer,
which I just bought a backup belt motor for. Even if you have the best supported equipment in the world you ain't gonna
get a new index motor at 1 AM Sunday night, which hopefully no one in Seattle or Denver found out...

[alan802]

Indeed maximizing usage of a single press is always desirable. Second auto for us was as much production
as it was peace of mind. Haven't ever had a machine down for more than an hour, but if we went down hard with one press
I'd have a heart attack. Redundancy is key for sleeping well at night. We have multiples of everything except a dryer,
which I just bought a backup belt motor for. Even if you have the best supported equipment in the world you ain't gonna
get a new index motor at 1 AM Sunday night, which hopefully no one in Seattle or Denver found out...

Touche.  It wouldn't be the end of the world if we missed a day (it would really suck) but if we missed more than a day I'd be a mess.  That is the only real issue I have to worry about with us having just one auto and will be the biggest selling point for our next auto.  It has to meet certain criteria, with the biggest one being support to make sure we will never be down longer than a day.  The only time we had an issue with our current press we were down 10 minutes but there aren't too many manufacturers that I feel comfortable with saying they will never let us be down for longer than the one day shift.

[tancehughes]

If I were you Tance, I'd trade in the DB, package a DTS with an auto that will run at a higher production rate than you can physically load and with that combination you'll never need more than 3 guys running production until you're doing 2,000 jobs per year and WELL into 7 figures in sales.  Those numbers will be from a shop that doesn't do much contract work but handles the every day person off the street and the run of the mill business in town needing shirts for their employees.  Obviously the 2K and 7 figure numbers only apply to a shop like ours with our current job characteristics.  If you do nothing but 1 to 2 color jobs all day and don't ever see yourself doing 40 screens per day, even 4-5 years from now then I'd look elsewhere but I think your average job is probably similar to ours.

We're getting closer, and I do not want to add a second auto or another employee until we're so smothered in work that we're missing deadlines.  I think maximizing your production capabilities while maintaining just one automatic is the best route, but that's just my opinion.  I think adding support machinery (DTS, regi system, high output expo unit) until all methods are exhausted before buying that second auto is the way to go but I know there are other opinions.  Others choose to get that second auto much sooner than I would but I still respect that idea even though I'd do it differently.

I just wish the costs of DTS would come down a bit.

Alan I wish the cost was lower too, but I am justifying it with the numbers I've ran so far. I don't think I want to trade in my DB since it is already paid for. And, I'll have to upgrade dryer. That's a lot more cost involved as well (for us, would be at about $140,000-$150,000 total). Plus I don't want to hire anyone else right now since we are moving into a new facility. $$$$$$$ everywhere I look!!

We are actually at about 50% contract work now, with more steadily coming through. Our worst bottleneck now is screens. We need more of them, need them developed faster, and need less problems during setup (not that we have tons, but less is always better). 

So much of our work is usually simpler jobs, average order size is 100 pcs., and with our newest large client, all of the work is 1-4 spot colors with an average run of 72 pcs. For our situation, we are thinking that DTS will be the way to go.

I know that most of us are so familiar with the pros and cons of DTS that I don't have to delve into super detailed info. Putting all the pieces to the puzzle together, I just think a DTS is really going to be the direction we need to go in. And heck, I may end up changing my mind (who doesn't want to upgrade their 6 color auto), but going to the show really opened my eyes even more to the world of DTS.