Auto Coaters

[TCT]

I know if you drink enough of the Saati Kool Aid, they may hook you up with a free one as long as you use all their stuff. At least that is what was presented to me....

[DannyGruninger]

After watching the video of the grunig coating machine I would still suggest the uni kote. The uni kote coats both sides at the same time so right there it's double the speed to coat a single screen. You also have to flip the screen on the grunig and looks like two hands required to operate the machine. With my uni kote I can load screens with one hand and press the start button with the other hand. It's very fast and efficient compared to what I see in that grunig video. I'm sure the grunig is a good machine but after watching the video I'm confident the uni kote will do the same amount of screens in less then half the time. That's huge to me

[kingscreen]

It looks like the Grunig is all electric.  No air.  I could see how that would be appealing.  Plug & Play.

[TCT]

Think Kiwo makes one too.

[DannyGruninger]

It looks like the Grunig is all electric.  No air.  I could see how that would be appealing.  Plug & Play.

I assume most print shops have air in their shop, I just put a tee on one of our heat press air lines and ran to the coating machine. After uncrating our uni kote we were coating screens within 10 minutes. It was plug and play for us, and one of the easiest machines to learn we've got.

[Inkworks]

The bargain hunter in me would probably take a close look at this if we did enough screens to justify an auto coater.

[Underbase37]

Think Kiwo makes one too.

They have a very good one but, it coats two screens & is kind of bulky, & as Danny said, more troughs to clean.

Murphy37

[TCT]

The bargain hunter in me would probably take a close look at this if we did enough screens to justify an auto coater.

That has been for sale FOREVER, many a time I have wondered what freight on it would be.

[Inkworks]

They are pretty simple machines for the most part, not much that couldn't be fixed if the plc is working.

[GaryG]

I remember using a Harlacher 20 years ago. Built like a tank.
I'm sure M&R would be a good thing though, keeping in mind service and all.

[GKitson]

Owning/using a coating machine is kind of like CTS units.

Those that don't have them make excuses that involve "Good Enough'!

Those that own/use them would never choose to do without.

~Kitson

[jvanick]

Auto coater is on our "buy soon" list.

now if somebody could come out with a good, quick and in-expensive screen auto-cleaning solution (notice I said all 3!)... I'd be in heaven.


way cheaper to automate than it is to add staff, especially with how much they're raising minimum wage.

[Inkworks]

Owning/using a coating machine is kind of like CTS units.

Those that don't have them make excuses that involve "Good Enough'!

Those that own/use them would never choose to do without.

~Kitson

I think it's more of a demographic thing, we coat about once a week or so, if we were doing it daily it might be a different story and the ROI on an automated unit may start making sense. The Graphic screen shop I managed had one and while it was great as a hands-off time saver, the clean-up was more labor than hand-coating, and coating wasn't that much more uniform as it varied with emulsion levels in the scoops and emulsion viscosity variance from a new bucket to a older 1/4 bucket. Funny thing is the other graphic shop I worked at could have really benefited from one as they did a ton of 4cp. work where eom is more critical, and the screens were ~9' x 5' I was literally too short to scoop coat them.

At least the math on a coater is very straight forward and easy to show, for a busy shop it's a no-brainer I think.

[bimmridder]

I know every shop is different. But a coating machine is a necessity here. Along with the machine, coating two screens at a time, we can also image and expose screens at the same time. One person doing three tasks at the same time. I've had a coating machine for over ten years. Quality, consistency, ease of use. So many reasons to appreciate it. And this unit has been running since install with absolutely zero down time.

[SteveS]

We bought the Uni-Kote by M&R. Once setup and aimed on the unit, it just makes life so much easier and consistent across the board. But yes, two troughs to clean up. Yes there is but I couldn't imagine it having it any other way.