Thoughts on Line Printing Tables

[jenyakenya]

Hey guys

I just wanted to quickly gather some thoughts and opinions on line printing.

I accidentally stumbled upon a few videos of this process recently, and the simplicity of a line printing table blew my mind. It's SO much cheaper than a rotary press, and seems way more efficient.

I'm also baffled that I can't find a single company that sells these in the US. As a new screen printer, I'd love to get my hands on one of these and try it out, but built ones aren't available anywhere. There are some build plans on this forum, but that's about it.

WHY aren't these popular in the US? I can only seem to find them in Mexico and the Philippines. What do you guys think?


If you don't know what I'm talking about CHECK THIS OUT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIYtNtAGxbo


Here's one with micro reg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMkKeLQzpu8

[abchung]

For me I believe the USA uses more plastisol than water base inks in the past.

I would not use this method for plastisol because pushing a hot flash dryer around the room is not efficient and dangerous

In South East Asian we usually use rubber ink which can be air dried. So to prevent drying in the screen, people would try to lay out all the shirts for 1 project and print one colour first, once all the shirts are printed the first shirt would be dried, this eliminates a flash drier (cost saving). You will need a lot of land if you want to print a lot of shirts.

[Maxie]

When you pay their wages you can print like they do.
This is a very labor intensive way of printing.

[jsheridan]

some of the best printing is done on tables. i've seen some 20 color prints that destroyed what we can do.

costs to much to do here as the space required and the labor kills the margins.

 

[tonypep]

If you can find a way to pay 86. per hour plus a bowl of rice then yes, it makes sense. And a football field of space

[Ross_S]

It always amazed me that they could hold registration with this method but who the hell would want to do that all day.  Running 10k plus on an auto gets monotonous could you imagine doing it this way.

[abchung]

Another method of printing with cheap air dried inks with minimal electricity.
One must remember electricity cost more in "developing" countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qgx_R0jxT4

[Ross_S]

No shirt no shoes no problem, LOL.  But that is amazing I never saw that process and they can fly.

[jsheridan]

now you know where the tri loc design came from..

3 point reg system in the house!!

[Frog]

I was introduced to screen printing on fabric printing yardage on long tables using a T-Square with marks for registration. (nothing tight like this though)

[Action1]

This is an area that has garnered my attention many times.
I've done some modeling of various concepts and will very possibly focus again on it.
There's a great deal that can be accomplished this way.

[ffokazak]

If this is the direction the industry is going Im selling my presses and opening a Blockbuster. 

[3Deep]

What ever inks they are using they have it dial in, I'd love to go all waterbase inks, amazing I started out printing with waterbase then found plastisol was the bees knees for some reason.

[Maxie]

The video posted by acbchung is great, I've seen a lot of table printing in India but never like this.
For someone wanting to do overall printing it is neat, easy to build.
I've seen good printing even on darks, they air dry the inks between colors and sometimes put it through a oven at the end.

[abchung]

now you know where the tri loc design came from..

3 point reg system in the house!!

M&R also have their own system for M-Link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK98Rv44dcY