My press is down....

[T Shirt Farmer]

Let's remember company A has a lot of techs because they have a lot of installs going on. 

I must be missing the point of your statement, what does that have do with the need to fix a broken press or the reliability of any given manufacturers product ??

Someone else made the point techs were great but so is equipment that doesn't need fixed.   It came off like the reason they had techs was for fixing equipment only...  Which is false.

Makes sense that a mfg that has a larger market share will have more techs, the large majority of those would be committed to installations.

[ericheartsu]

as someone who has equipment down constantly, i can't express how much of a pain in the butt it is. Thankfully we've grown very fond of the Graphic Solutions Tech team, who are always very nice, and full of ideas on quick, and not so quick fixes to pesky parts.

I will say that one of our presses, typically has to buy parts from AWT, who are always to busy, or not paying attention to send the right parts. Also the fact that there are several different parts within the same S/N, doesn't help. Where as our M&R press, it's very easy to find the right parts, and they typically can ship from GSG in dallas, or from M&R in IL.

[blue moon]

Pierre

Could you have hooked up a lab top via a USB port and still control the press?

I hooked up a monitor to the press and used it that way until we got the replacement.

pierre

So in that instance you were not at standstill for more than a few hours ? I am sure it was stressful but there was a work around... correct

sort of correct. The press was stopped and there was no going forward until fixed. There was no workaround until the parts from manufacturer were shipped in (which came in overnight and total time loss was less than a day).

pierre

[alan802]

We had a day and a half once with the old Centurian and we've been down 10 minutes on the RPM in 5 years.  There is no doubt that some machine brands have more issues than others but for the most part, the machines being manufactured now are very reliable. 

[gtmfg]

So in 5 years here's our list

Crank case and Servo 3K
2 batteries   $180
2 frame airlocks $80
1 plc unit $2k

Avg. out to just over a grand a year to keep it rolling. Never been down over 24 hours.
  Only 500K prints

[screenprintguy]

So in 5 years here's our list

Crank case and Servo 3K
2 batteries   $180
2 frame airlocks $80
1 plc unit $2k

Avg. out to just over a grand a year to keep it rolling. Never been down over 24 hours.
  Only 500K prints

I hate to ask, but what is it?

[3Deep]

We've had our press now going on 6 years never been down more than an hour or two and that was me being slow about the fix, like Alan there ain't to much on our press that I would need a tech to come in and work on.  Like someone mention already some people are not hands on so they would need a tech to do just about all there repairs from simple to major.  This is just me but if I'm buying a new press and the word service after the sell comes up a lot as a selling point then I'm asking why, do you expect this press to break down a lot, where I would like it more if they said we will be there if you ever need us.  I don't think any of us expect our machines to run for years and years without problems, but major problems right out the box yes.

Darryl

[T Shirt Farmer]

So in 5 years here's our list

Crank case and Servo 3K
2 batteries   $180
2 frame airlocks $80
1 plc unit $2k

Avg. out to just over a grand a year to keep it rolling. Never been down over 24 hours.
  Only 500K prints

OUCH

[screenprintguy]

Our press is 7 years old now. It only went down 1 day, the main proxy sensor for the pallet position somehow loosened and the top part of it got chopped off. Happened in the afternoon overnighted a few new ones, swapped it out in about 20 mins. So it wasn't bad. Have had a few other minor things happen. Chopper cylinders, a couple proxy sensors on print heads, connections going bad in infrared flashes, but all easy fix things. Dryer so far, the one bearing, but last night the other bearing started buzzing so I'm sure I should change that one this weekend, but so far stuff I should be able to handle myself.

[bimmridder]

Do I count the 5-7 days all three were under flood water? Six years ago and all three running like champs today! Of course work had to be done to them after the flood. I'm just saying there are some damn good manufacturers out there.

[sqslabs]

In five years, I've been down for two hours once, and that was due to a faulty power supply connection on my PLC.  I called in a tech as I couldn't figure out what it was and when he unscrewed it the PLC it moved a bit and the machine came back to life.  I think the bill was like $30 total for his time, mostly driving. 

Other than that, I've replaced flip, stroke and index cylinders while rebuilding my old ass press over time but none of that ever stopped production.  Recently I had some new MAC valves installed as well as I hadn't done that before, but it was scheduled for a time when we could handle the press not running for a few hours.

I've had more downtime with my dryer between cleaning spark plugs / flame rods, and the gas company not refilling my tanks on time.  I was down for a few hours another time but that was due to bad filter maintenance on my part and once I took care of that was back up and running.

[ebscreen]

I'll put it like this:

Bimba cylinders are available everywhere and cheap. But they go out. Kind of a lot.

Kuhnke are expensive and difficult to source, but I've never had to replace one.
And they are rebuildable.

I have had to replace more than a few SMC valves, those things go out a lot too.

[alan802]

I'll put it like this:

Bimba cylinders are available everywhere and cheap. But they go out. Kind of a lot.

Kuhnke are expensive and difficult to source, but I've never had to replace one.
And they are rebuildable.

I have had to replace more than a few SMC valves, those things go out a lot too.

Not trying to start a TeeTee match but we're still on our 40 original Bimbas on the RPM but I'm not sure what constitutes a lot or if our case is an anomaly or if our air oiler is just the bomb, or both, or all, or none, just throwing out an experience I've had with them.  Carry on.

[ebscreen]

Oh yeah, Kuhnke's don't need an oiler.

Beat that!

[alan802]

I guess I can't.  Well played good sir.