Question for the blue guys

[TCT]

Ok die hard blue guys, time to test your company knowledge. Or, suppose Rich may know the answer

In my efforts to know EVERY single thing screen printing related I have a question....
What's the deal with the 2 shades of blue? Guess you don't see it all that often, but I have seen it and heard 3 explanations. 2 sound like they could be legit.

1) The lighter blue shade means the machine was from the Poland factory and not headed to the states originally.
2) The lighter blue machines were built before 19xx date.
And the third I've heard that seems like a stretch-
3) The light blue shade means the machine was refurbished.

This answer has been keeping me up late nights searching for the answer
Actually, just my curiosity!

[Orion]

None of the above.

I think the lighter blue indicated the press to be entry level. Also notice that the base is black on these models. Yeah, we have a six color model.

[Croft]

my 2005 sportsman is black base lighter blue I think they changed blues soon after that. but you never know maybe being from a foreign land I got something different

[screenprintguy]

Didn't know that, but I think the gold colored anodized aluminum components, like squeegee/flood bar air clamps mean it's made in Europe,  I could be wrong. Not sure there was a different color blue. It always looks like a different shade depending on lighting,  and how clean or dirty you gear is. 

[TCT]

Exactly what I'm talking about! Since I've posted I have 3 NEW explanations! Now I'm even more interested!!!

[244]

Exactly what I'm talking about! Since I've posted I have 3 NEW explanations! Now I'm even more interested!!!

Think Scion/ Toyota. The light blue machines used to represent a lower cost line of equipment. Performer, Premier, and Sportsman were those lines.

[jsheridan]

Speaking of..

I run a 6 color sporty and it's this configuration.. all air and the shock is a slammer.. loud thunk at the end of the index. does not sound normal but they guy said it's been like that for years.

[3Deep]

@ jsheridan you should be able to adjust that from the index air cylinder, it should have a little hex/allen type screw at both ends that you can adjust with a allen wrench, that controls the air flow at least on my press it does.

darryl

[jsheridan]

@ jsheridan you should be able to adjust that from the index air cylinder, it should have a little hex/allen type screw at both ends that you can adjust with a allen wrench, that controls the air flow at least on my press it does.

darryl

Familiar with all that, been tuning the throttle on these for a long time and it's a 4 step process with index speed, cushion, shock and recoil.

Had a 6 color slamming at 92dz an hour back in 94' in jax FL, shook so much it wore out the feet. We put 300k prints on that thing in 3 months.. was insane.

Just wanted to see if i should get under there and smooth it out or let it be.

[dirkdiggler]

had a light blue sporty back in the day, but it was LOADED, nothing cheap about it, every option.

[244]

had a light blue sporty back in the day, but it was LOADED, nothing cheap about it, every option.

The machines were all made here in the States. We do NOT ship the metric machines we make into the U.S. market and never have. Pricing was the objective back then with the different color machines, not quality. Speed was a little slower than the standard blue machines as well. If we were bringing our metric versions here to the States it would be very difficult for others to compete by price.
 but the burden of metric components would cause delays on service response

[Underbase37]

You mean like this bad boy. This little guy is by no means a light weight. When we bought it new over 15 years ago, servo/AC heads weren't the standard on this press I believe, so we had it  FULLY LOADED with all AC/servo heads and index.

I don't know I would say this little guy is slower, it's the fastest press here, as at 0sec. it can produce around 800 prints an hour. ( not many here can run at that speed, I think myself and one other are the only to get that speed and sustain it.)

This sucker runs like a champ to this day. We have kept up with maintenance and had to replace some parts over the years, like the lift cylinders, run to death ( at around the 2mil. mark ) and the PLC/ brain about a year ago. Not 100% on the total impressions, as when we replaced the PLC it reset things to zeros. ( I'm the idiot that didn't jot the old number down before replacing ) but it's up there. We put just over 300k on it over the last year since we replace the PLC.


LOVE THIS PRESS!

Murphy

[dirkdiggler]

had that same one, 8 color version.

[3Deep]

Ok what the heck is that speaker for, you know you can't jam tunes and print at the same time LOL

[244]

Ok what the heck is that speaker for, you know you can't jam tunes and print at the same time LOL

that was optional! NOT!