Equipment I Saw at ISS FT. Worth

[T Shirt Farmer]

Question, we have a Sportsman 10 color and we find our orders are getting smaller and smaller.  It seems that a couple of the other brands (Sroque & MHM) have a better system for getting screens on/off press and pallets switched out.  Would we really be saving time or are the apparent time savings not really there in real use?  Also the on the fly adjustments to registration seem better as well.

That is why I bought MHM

[244]

Good review Alan.

I have never been to the Long Island show but I'm told it's the show to be for screenprinters. I usually attend the SGIA Expo in Vegas and last year in Orlando. SGIA always puts on a great show but the criticism by some is that the show in recent time seems to be paying more and more attention to the digital print market and less of the screen print. I still enjoy going and networking with everyone.

I look forward to your write up on CTS as I'm also exploring investing in that. I think the key players are EXILE (fromerly OYO), DOUTHITT and M&R.

Quick correction. Long Beach instead of Long Island.

[Frog]

You should write for the trades, Alan. Nice work, and unbiased to boot!

Steve

The trades have always eschewed comparisons and/or real reviews in favor of  press releases that are little more than ads.
I would say that they know which side their bread is buttered on, but wonder how Car and Bike and other narrow-fielded enthusiast publications don't have the same issues.
Perhaps the key is "enthusiast" as opposed to "industry"

[Underbase37]

Very nice review. That had to of taken some time so, Thanks for that.

Murphy37

[tonypep]

You should write for the trades, Alan. Nice work, and unbiased to boot!

Steve

The trades have always eschewed comparisons and/or real reviews in favor of  press releases that are little more than ads.
I would say that they know which side their bread is buttered on, but wonder how Car and Bike and other narrow-fielded enthusiast publications don't have the same issues.
Perhaps the key is "enthusiast" as opposed to "industry"

Haven written for the trades for a couple of decades I can make a couple of comments. First; it doesn't pay like it used to so unless you're looking for broad recognition, it's not worth the effort. Second; although many pubs claim to be "neutral" they often strategically place ads adjacent to articles pertaining to a particular subject. Lastly; at this point most trade pub revenues are derived from shows rather than the mags. One of the many reasons the mags get thinner each month.

[alan802]

I want to give my take on the CTS machines I saw at the show, all 2 of them, but I don't have much time to spend doing it.  I'll start off by saying I saw the STE II and the Exile Spyder.  I didn't get to spend much time with the Exile guys because I stopped by their booth on my way out the door.  I did speak to other guys not at the 2 booths about CTS and so there was more than just 2 conversations about CTS while at the show.  I was more than impressed with the STE II.  It's the king of the CTS machines for total output.  I wasn't surprised to hear some of the criticism of the M&R unit, more the I-image than the STE but I was surprised at exactly what the issues were which I don't want to get into here because it would get ugly and I need to do more research on those comments to see if it's valid or just sales-speak.  We've all been given plenty of info on the M&R CTS units so I'll talk about the Exile Spyder first.  I've always liked the wax-based CTS units and I'll tell you why.  The unit that Exile is selling as the Spyder is the original Kiwo I-jet, which is also sold by Douthitt and has had the longest run by far of any CTS unit out there I think.  It's been tried and true and refined for many years.  Any issues were fixed many years ago and I think from a reliability standpoint, this machine has the most "skins on the wall" and it's not even close.  I liked the sales pitch about how the wax works and what it does better than the waterbased inks and I've been told that by more than just the CTS sales guys.  A few other guys I respect a ton have also told me great things about the wax units.  When asked about incorporating an LED light bar or some other piece of exposure to the Spyder that's when I heard the criticism of the waterbased CTS units and why the light bar made sense for them and not necessarily for the wax based unit.  They said they were developing an exposure unit that would work well with their CTS unit but I don't want to put the details out there.  I really like having the light bar on the exposure unit and I don't see how that can be beat, but others aren't joining that right now for some reason.  A standalone expo unit without vacuum and good LED output could keep up theoretically with the STE II and give you more flexibility when using long-exposing emulsions without having to have what the STE II has with the light bar and built in starlight in the back.  I would rather have the STE II right now and I like what it can do and the speed it can do it over the wax-based units but I'm still open to the Douthitt and Spyder due to some of the other things I touched on earlier.  I also like having the ability to shoot 4 screens at once with a free-standing light source and running exposures with the wax unit with that or a really good LED unit that exposes in 5-10 seconds can be extremely fast and be more than enough to increase our production needs at a much lower cost.  That LED scan bar is really nice, cool, fast, effective, efficient, but is it worth $20-40K more than using the more traditional methods of developing with only a CTS unit?  I have to figure that out and I'll of course be telling everyone where I stand on that front and always am looking for feedback from anyone.  Even the ones who have no experience with CTS, because you don't have to own one to have thoughts and opinions on how they can impact production.    I have to get back to production but I'll go on more about this when I get a chance which might not be till late today or tonight, we have never been this busy for this long and me and my guys are starting to wear thin.