400 Screens in 8 hours with 1 person - Coat, Image, Expose & Rinse

[Alex M]

he should be printing too, the slacker 

Man you and danny are hard on me... hahaha.
Really cool technology, It's a blast to be a part of.

[GraphicDisorder]

Rich if one of those STE's come up missing DO NOT get mad at Alex for shipping it to me, it was a accident.  LOL

[244]

Rich if one of those STE's come up missing DO NOT get mad at Alex for shipping it to me, it was a accident.  LOL

he better be in the crate as well! LOL! I am out of the country so I have not seen the finished version. Did they post the diazo blend one as well?

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

not that im looking to buy one or any position to buy one...but i have a question about the coater.....does it only hold aluminum frames?>..Can newman roller frames be used in the auto coater?

[DannyGruninger]

not that im looking to buy one or any position to buy one...but i have a question about the coater.....does it only hold aluminum frames?>..Can newman roller frames be used in the auto coater?

Yes, we use the uni kote daily with both static screens and newman frames.......You don't have to make any changes to the coater at all. We coat a static, then a newman back to back. I didn't think the coating machine was going to be as big of an impact as it has been in my shop. One of those machines that you don't realize what your missing until you have one. It has saved us a boatload in emulsion and made life really nice around here.

[bimmridder]

I am fortunate enough to have a coater that does two screens at a time and the STEII. Each one on its own is a great improvement, together, what can I say. Unfortunately we still develpoe the old fashioned way with a dip tank and pressure washer.   

[mk162]

honestly, it's more like babysitting than printing...which is how it should be.  Make a task as simple as possible and you are removing variables.  Offset printers did this years ago with direct to plate, and of course their presses are virtually pre-registered anyway.

[sqslabs]

I'll just leave this right here..   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brain_Center_at_Whipple%27s


 

[bulldog]

I'll just leave this right here..   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brain_Center_at_Whipple%27s


 

Haha, I don't think it's a desire to replace people with machines as much as it's so hard to find good help!

[jvanick]

and consistency...  an autocoater will be on the list at around the same time (or maybe even before) a DTS for us.

no matter how good you are at coating screens, variances in pressure and/or speed will == different thicknesses of emulsion

[bimmridder]

I had a long rebuttal to a few of the above comments, but decided it best not to post. I'll just say we have never eliminated an employee in the process of automating. And SO many things are better.

[bulldog]

I would never eliminate a good employee because I could automate the position if that's how my post seemed. If I was trying to automate something and it happened to pretty much all but remove a person's job I would retrain them in something else...allow them to move up within the company. Good employees are hard to find so I would never get rid of one.

On the flip side, if I had to decide between hiring someone new or getting an automated machine to replace a task *I* was doing, I would have to think long and hard about that.

Not that any of this is a problem for me yet. =)

[bimmridder]

Exactly. One thing it has helped us with is keeping everyone employed, but reducing overtime. Running 2+ presses instead of 1+. A lot of smaller things happen too. But all driven by good/great employees. It wouldn't make a bit of difference if I could make all the screens, if I didn't have a competent crew to set up, and run the jobs.

[sqslabs]

'Twas just a joke fellas..  I would have all of those machines in my shop if money allowed. 

And then I'd fire everyone.   

Great episode if you haven't seen it, though.

[3Deep]

All this stuff is great, but what size shops would benefit from having this equipment?, I know our little two man shop, it would take years to get ROI unless we are super productive then we would have employee's.  Now on the flip side if I had all that equipment I might not have to have as much help hmm, but I'd better be running my press everyday.