New screen for every order?

[jsheridan]

Or pay someone like me to pick up your dirty screens in the morning then clean them, maintain them, coat them and return them to you in the morning ready to burn. Pick up new dirty screens..

Wash rinse repeat

[tpitman]

I stumbled onto a vendor at an ISS show who did some printing on the side. He used Shurloc panels on Newman frames -- one time -- and resold the used, dirty ones for a few bucks. Eliminated reclaim and the sink and chemicals necessary to keep 'em in circulation. There's a logic to it.

[markdhl]

I believe the Trax panels are no longer available.  A great concept and easy to stretch ....


Mark Diehl
Douthitt Corporation

[mooseman]

Tom,

so here is another opportunity.........if you don't want to reclaim and you are running statics, run the job , charge the customer for the screen and markup...clean the ink, GIVE THE SCREEN to the customer and tell them to store it and bring it back for the next job they want printed.
The down side of this is you have two major competitors just minutes from your door not to mention me a little farther away. If you add the $ for throw away screens your customers will walk next door based on $. If you let the screens out they will be taking them next door to get a discount because they have a screen, at the very least your competition will see who your customers are!

If you keep them you have storage, inventory, degradation  / damage issues.
If you want to save the reclaim $ / labor BECAUSE  the reclaim process costs you more than just buying more screens toss the screens . If the new  statics + shipping cost more than reclaim suck it up and reclaim the screens.

You have to get a handle on what  you reclaim is costing you per screen before you can decide which way to go.
Sounds to me like your reclaim guy just doesn't like to reclaim screens.
I am a solo act you know that....I can reclaim 8 screens in 30 minutes....1 minute ea to add the reclaim chemical, stack and let them sit for 12 minutes on a timer. Hit them with a pressure wash another minute ea max and de-grease another minute ea
so that is 8 minutes to apply reclaim chem + 12 minutes just sitting there + 8 minutes pressure was + 8 minutes degrease = 36 minutes on the high side. At $50 / hr overhead cost those 8 screens cost me about $6.25 ea. I am not accounting for water, reclaim chemical and electric power but that is a smaller portion of the $ / screen.
last I knew wood frames with 156 mesh cost more than twice that before shipping.

Add your reclaim with a paint roller , (fast and efficient), stack and let the screens set while the chemical works , line em up shoot em out wash and stack to dry and tell your reclaim guy to suck it up.
mooseman

[jvanick]

depending on how many screens you go through a year, an automated reclaim system might even be cheaper.

I seem to remember the little ones from Northwest Graphic are around 10-15k...  at $10/screen for remesh before shipping, that's only 1000-1500 screens...

[Shanarchy]

I'd like to invest in auto reclaim at some point.

Homer, what are you using?

And does anyone know anything about this one?

http://www.davisint.com/p-747-automatic-screen-washer.aspx

[jvanick]

I'd like to invest in auto reclaim at some point.

Homer, what are you using?

And does anyone know anything about this one?

http://www.davisint.com/p-747-automatic-screen-washer.aspx

this is the exact unit I was talking about... I guess it's a lot less expensive than I thought... hmmm....

[Shanarchy]

Anyone have one in use? I've been pretty intrigued by it but would like to get some working world feedback on it.

[Homer]

you could build this for a fraction of the cost.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Isn't this just for ink wash?

[jvanick]

looks like they have a separate unit for emulsion removal.

I would be interested if anybody would like to collaborate on a design for something like this.

I have a CNC router which could easily machine any of the custom plastic parts.

the rest of it would probably be commonly available from grainger or any other 'automation' parts vendor (thinking some cyilders to move the heads back and forth, a bit of plumbing pieces, some pneumatic operated pumps, flow control valves, etc).

[ZooCity]

I too am very interested in that unit, or one like it, was thinking of buying one or two of them soon and incorporating them in a dip tank line to semi-automate reclaim.  Seems like a no brainer to at least eliminate the standing around and holding the press washer.

Does anyone know of a unit that uses electricity v. air for the pressure?  We would prefer that here I think, that's a lot of air consumption on those units.

I would be game to collaborate on a unit.  All I'm looking for is a box that scans with pressure washer and filters out the ink and emulsion that comes off, no chem.   Reusing the filtered water would be a huge plus.   Same unit could be used for resolving screens. 

[bimmridder]

I believe there is a shop here in town using one for the ink removal and another for stencil remover. I may have to pay them a vist. I think they are mostly plastisol.

[ZooCity]

I believe there is a shop here in town using one for the ink removal and another for stencil remover. I may have to pay them a vist. I think they are mostly plastisol.

Let me know how it's working out for them.  I'm wondering why more shops aren't using these...

[ebscreen]

Let me know how it's working out for them.  I'm wondering why more shops aren't using these...

Unfortunately I think the answer is what we fear. I've seen a lot of variations of the "scanning pressure washer head inside
dip tank" idea and have never heard good things. Solid idea, but doesn't seem to pan out in reality.
Hell, if the $75k ones worked as well as claimed I'd bet more folks would have one.