M&R Red Chilil and Anatol Rapid Wave Quartz Flashes - opinions?

[ZooCity]

Anyone using either one of these?  What do you like/dislike about the units?

Interoperability with an auto isn't an issue for us as this will be used with the optical sensor/timer on a manual and in the same manner on an auto down the road at times we need an additional flash.  We'll simply place the flash on press and set the controls on the unit itself not via the control panel. 

I have quotes for both models, a 20x24 Chili and a 16x20 Rapid and while M&R offered us a hell of a deal on the Chili, Anatol was willing to add a fan speed control the Rapid for us which I thought would be sweet.  They both look like great units and I'm sure we'll be stoked to have either but figured I'd ask around.

Thanks in advance. 

[ftembroidery]

I had the 16x20 Rapid Wave Quartz with my Antec Legend 6/6.  I loved it.  The only thing I found necessary was relocating the optical sensor so it was "looking down" at the arm of the station instead of trying to look at the outer edge of the platen.  Once I did that, all "missfires" or "no fires" of the quartz lamps were eliminated.  The one thing I did want (I never got one made), was a DIGITAL readout of the "On" time of the flash.  I wanted to be able to set it for 4.7 seconds (or whatever) and know that it would flash for that amount of time.  The controls that came with it were simple potentiometers/rheostats (read: twist knobs with no identifer scale) and I had to set the time by trial & error with a stop watch until I got what I was happy with.

[Northland]

I've got a 16X18 RapidWave. I'm happy with it.... with one small exception, the orientation of the lamps.
It has 9 lamps that are oriented front to back. They are controlled in groups of three (left, middle, right).

I would have prefered to have the lamps oriented side to side... then the 3 lamps would be grouped front, middle, back.
I could leave the back three lamps OFF for many of my designs.

... don't have any input on the Chili

[244]

That is how the RedChili works . Front,center,back

[3Deep]

I have the RapidWave on my anatol as well Its a great flash....I really think the only thing thats separates the two would be design and cost other than that, they both do the same job.

[alan802]

I've got a 16X18 RapidWave. I'm happy with it.... with one small exception, the orientation of the lamps.
It has 9 lamps that are oriented front to back. They are controlled in groups of three (left, middle, right).

I would have prefered to have the lamps oriented side to side... then the 3 lamps would be grouped front, middle, back.
I could leave the back three lamps OFF for many of my designs.

... don't have any input on the Chili

Can someone enlighten me as to why the zones were made left to right instead of the 3 zones from front to back?  I can see because of a left chest...maybe...but then again I can't see a good reason to do it that way.

[3Deep]

Can't answer that question Alan my flash has the front to back...why they changed it I wouldn't know, just know I like mine the way it is.

Darryl

[Northland]

It's possible that not all RapidWaves have the lamp orientation like mine (left, middle, right).

[ftembroidery]

My Rapid wave was two zones....top and/or bottom.

[spotcolorsupply]

It's possible that not all RapidWaves have the lamp orientation like mine (left, middle, right).

That's weird..?? All of the rapid wave flashes I’ve seen are front to back 

I guess they tried that for a while, but I don’t think they are making them that way anymore.

[ZooCity]

Thanks for the feedback folks.  Noted on the bulb/zone orientation.

One last ?: intensity control.  Absolute necessity? 

The chili does not have it, rapid wave does.  You can adjust time and height on both.  I'm seeing if I can add it to the chili because I can't see a reason not to have this feature.  Then again, perhaps there's a reason it's excluded. 

Keep in mind that our bread and butter here is thin rayon/poly/cotton blends and the like and we routinely print on all sort of weird substrates, we're definitely not a beefy Ts and gildans kind of shop and many substrates that might be groaned at and avoided, we actively sell and accept with open arms. 

[alan802]

If you are printing on substrates that are highly variable from one to the next I would sure as hell want intensity control.  We don't use it very often, cause we don't print on a bunch of touchy substrates that burn easily, but for burnout tees, I couldn't see living without intensity control.  Time is great, but sometimes 1 second at full power will burn the substrate, and if you can knock the intensity down to 50% and flash for 2 seconds, you'll be fine.

[ZooCity]

To follow up, I had to go with the Anatol unit.  I prefer M&Rs build quality and service, it's pretty much second to none, but the only M&R quartz model with intensity control is the Cayenne which is overkill for us.  Anatol's Rapid Wave had that critical feature and they were very accommodating with adding the variable fan speed control that I wanted.  With this unit we should have control over every aspect of the flash- height, levelling, bulb intensity, dwell time and air flow.

Thanks all for chiming in.  That would up being waaay harder of a decision than I expected.  I wound up really hanging on that intensity control because I realized, just like with IR panels, height adjustment can only go so far before you start messing with the 'target' flash area.  With quartz flash times being a freaking second or two, like Alan said above, there's not much else you can do besides drop the intensity.  Time adjustment loses much of it's functionality without control of heat intensity.   

This became more apparent that we absolutely needed control over this when I learned that rayon blends are known scorchers with quartz and we print tri-blends and the like all day around here and the Tultex Blends that get subbed often for these are even thinner and trickier.  My gut tells me we'll be using the quartz with a dwell time much longer than most running autos would use (but still plenty quick for us), the intensity set very low and the air speed on the fans cranked up when printing on these blends and other delicates.  I wish we would have had more choice in bulb type out there because I'm guessing different elements put off different kinds of heat and some may be better for the delicate stuff than others.

I'm kind of scratching my head that the variable fan speed I requested isn't standard as well.  I read about the advantages of this somewhere, that airflow on the flash is not necessarily just for printing WB (I'm naive with this but I don't expect to be flashing WB very often, if ever) but for dissipating the smoke that comes off the garment and frustrates the heat waves from penetrating the ink layer. 

[ZooCity]

Oh and, by the way, I confirmed w. Anatol that the zones go front to back not side to side with the flashes.  Not sure why North's go the other way.

[244]

Oh and, by the way, I confirmed w. Anatol that the zones go front to back not side to side with the flashes.  Not sure why North's go the other way.

the Red chili can have power settings if you need it. We do it on the larger  red chili units already