Who here has switched from ALL rollers to All Statics?

[mimosatexas]

Any issues with ink sludge?  My ONLY issue with Supra is that I get ink sludge at the bottom of the tank after a while, mostly black, which will catch in the little seam between where the mesh is glued to the metal frame on my statics.  Every once in a while if I am not careful I will get ink on my hands from this while setting up or spinning my press during a print run.  I wish every ink acted like White in this sense, where the supra loosens it up plenty to pressure wash off the screen, but none of it actually breaks down in the tank.  With black, and some of the other thinner inks, they will breakdown and come off the emulsion a little.

Sorry, I know this is a tangent of sorts...

[Homer]

Any issues with ink sludge?  My ONLY issue with Supra is that I get ink sludge at the bottom of the tank after a while, mostly black, which will catch in the little seam between where the mesh is glued to the metal frame on my statics.  Every once in a while if I am not careful I will get ink on my hands from this while setting up or spinning my press during a print run.  I wish every ink acted like White in this sense, where the supra loosens it up plenty to pressure wash off the screen, but none of it actually breaks down in the tank.  With black, and some of the other thinner inks, they will breakdown and come off the emulsion a little.

Sorry, I know this is a tangent of sorts...

ink does not remove itself from the screen until light water pressure is applied. ink sludge = zero.


statics are the jam in my shop. we tried every style of frame we could and came full circle back to them. Maintenance was a huge deal breaker as well.

[mimosatexas]

good to know!

[pwalsh]

After a very brief discussion with Brandon via Text, I'm wondering how many of you have switched from all rollers to all Static Smesh?

Give me the pros and cons!

Earlier this year I visited the shop where Marshall Atkinson ran in Milwaukee, WI with 12 automatic presses and there wasn't a single roller frame in sight.  Every press was running stretch and glue frames with permanent blockout and a corner bead sealant that allowed the frames to be used without any tape other than what is used to cover registration marks. These guys are saving a boatload of cash not not paying to purchase or apply screen tape. 

In addition they are having a positive impact on the environment by not dumping miles and miles of inky tape into a land fill. One could argue that this shop could be printing higher quality images with mesh that was stretched to higher tension on roller frames, but given the market ad specialty / corporate apparel market they serve I believe that they're streets ahead with the tape-less and permanent blockout static frames.     

[mooseman]

manual , all MZX square bar, 80% s-mesh rest regular run of the mill mesh.
We seem to have no problem throwing s-mesh into rollers.
mooseman

[Sbrem]

We are mostly static. We have a few dozen manual and machine sized rollers, but the staff is not particularly fond of them, particularly for manual printing. Now on the very rare occasion that I print something, (usually a personal project)  I like the rollers, but I'm not at a press all day, so I let them do it their way as long as the results are there.

Steve

We have an M & R Blue Max stretcher we got years ago (20?) at an auction. With the extension bars, we can remake our number screens (84") and large poster screens, though we don't do flat work anymore, as well as the manual and auto sizes... nice unit, but I always keep my eye open for a Harlacher...

[Doug S]

Since we are doing more sim process work, I love the rollers with s mesh.  I think out of the last 60 screens I've made I've had to use a micro on 1 because it was out like a 32nd.  For the everyday stuff though I like the statics due to the lack of maintenance.

[brandon]

Eric and Val (Night Owls) and I speak all the time and we all help each other out. Just like on this board. In regards to what him and I were speaking about with statics as usual every shop is different. We are about 95% water base / discharge and with most of our turn around times being 2 or 3 days tops it works for us. Rollers are amazing and for plastisol you will reap huge rewards as long as you have someone to stay on top of them. Because if you don't at the end of the day a roller that is not cared for becomes a static.

[tonypep]

I can literally hear the industry vets collectively banging their heads against the wall

[brandon]

I can literally hear the industry vets collectively banging their heads against the wall

Tony is the one who helped open my eyes in regards to water base printing and what works with regards to screens. You have to figure out what works for your shop. We have a very niche market we serve.

[Maff]

A big difference is the quality of these statics.
We've always used statics and only since last year started getting our statics from Spot Color Supply. Both S-mesh and Saati higher mesh counts. They are so much better in comparison to the crappy statics we used to get elsewhere. Previously I thought we'd eventually need to get rollers... but now I don't see why.
For us in our shop they work great.
We are all manual and print about 75% spot color work and about 75% plastisol. We often use a discharge base for sim process and 4cp.

[ZooCity]

We run s mesh, even the delicate stuff, on all rollers.  Reten is part of the screen flow, less work than fighting a low tension screen on press imo.  My staff has never had to worry about sloppy screens,  I figure there's enough other variables to deal with,  may as well control one that is relatively easy.  Breakage due to using rollers is very rare,  our mesh tends to expire due to abrasion from the blade during printing.

But I hate tape,  the time it takes and of course the waste.   

I guess I just need to try this out and scratch the itch.  My concern is that we'll have wb ink leakage using only emulsion as the "tape", or that perm blockout.  We also top tape along the blade edges since a lot of the print runs are getting longer here.  But it sounds like it could work out from the reports here. 

Had anyone regretted making this change?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[jvanick]

for whatever reason in our shop, I find that roller frames register on press quicker and easier than the static frames.
.. even when the static frames are at nearly the exact same tension.

Not sure why this is, but for tight-registration jobs we always go roller frame...

We do have a bunch of statics that we use, and have remeshed as well.

for 1 color and non-tight registration work, you can't beat the lightness, ease of cleaning, or cost.

We do not run permanent blockout tho, as those screens tend to make a giant mess during reclaim because it reflects the pressure washer spray back at you

[Maxie]

I think Rollers have been marketed because of the high tension they can hold.
What tension are you able to maintain on your statics?

[screenprintguy]

Ive been tossing the idea back and forth to sell all these roller frames and table and go statics. We have a 50/50 collection now of both types of frames and I have to say, my statics from Spot Color supply that are meshed with S mesh hold their tension. Handling a static is 100 times nicer, lighter, no worries about all the tape and when reclaiming statics are way less work all the way around. There is no difference in our printing from static to rollers so the only upside I see right now is that I have them and can stretch them myself, but even that, if you use panels, they are expensive and the time involved. I now know of lots of very high end print shops that only use statics so the myth that owning roller frames will put you above others is just that, a myth. The work is out there. It's now just time to see who I can get to buy all these rollers, lol, especially now that I typed this big book, hahahhah. I will say there are companies out there that do a half a$$ job of re stretching so you need a good one, and we use Spot Color Supply in Atlanta. I don't care about the time or the freight cost because Scott and Brannon stand behind their work, and do the best screens I've had since we've been in business. If you are going with S mesh, I don't see the roller being a necessity any more, honestly.