"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
Congratulations, you won't be disappointed.I take it this means the MHM is going bye bye?I can't wait until we can do the same. Beautiful solid machines that they are theyjust can't compete with green.
Got it. Nice, a jump from 1 to 3 machines is awesome.I'm gonna bet that with the cups as opposed to pins you won't have to change anything on the reg. pallet. The issue with Newman pins is that they ride above the stop blocks, but I'm prettysure the cups are larger in diameter and won't be an issue.Either way I'm here if you need it.
Long story short, getting ROQs. A small YOU and a larger ECO. 'should be here next month.Why ROQ? Many will think there is some sophisticated discombobulated formula behind the decision, but it was just the opposite. I asked one question only, "What press will make us the most money over the next three-four years?" And the answer was ROQ! This is not to knock down the other manufacturers as many of them have fantastic product, but there is just a slight edge with the green presses. How slight, one might ask. In my eyes less than 5% and possibly as low as 1%. The problem is, for us that 1% performance lag is hundreds of dollars in labor every month and with two presses it could be $1K! 5% in performance could mean $5K left on the table EVERY MONTH. Such is the world of contract sreenprinting. Those are some serious numbers and are hard to ignore.So what did we look at?Peter Walsh (M&R) was very helpful coming up with a deal that makes sense and we looked at getting two Sportsmans. This would have been our second choice after the ROQs. We were very close to going that route, the main thing in the way was that minor lag in production I already mentioned. The value for the money was a little better with the ROQ, too; even though they were just a little bit more expensive.MHM makes a nice press, and I still believe the best engineered press on the market, but dealing with MHM directly I never got the satisfaction to our issue with the bent main shaft. Add the fact that pin system we tried to make work with the CTS is just not working as well as three point setup from ROQ and they were out of the running. Again, fine press, but my expectations are for the ROQs to produce at least 10% more in a day and 20% (compared to our old press) would not surprise me! In the end, ROQ team really bent over backwards to get our business. I had serious reservations about dealing with Ryonet as, just as many others here, I perceived them to be catering to the garage printers only. It turns out things have changed. They have hired some top talent from big, big, big companies and start tackling the real movers and shakers in the industry. Shops with 30 autos are switching over and these are not the guys to suffer fools lightly. Jeffrey, my point of contact at RYO has Private Equity background and gets the business on the whole different level. It was refreshing to have a conversation with somebody who does not need an explanation of what a discounted cash flow means. We needed two presses and could not really afford two fully loaded ECOs. Jefferey worked on finding a deal that would work for cost and the production requirements. It involved getting a little creative (while all the other manufacturers we getting creative, Jeffrey "The Energizer Bunny" would not quit until we found a configuration that worked for both of us.) We are getting a demo 8/12 ECO XL and a 4/8 YOU. ECO is a beast that will print fast and is actually bigger than we needed, but it was available and they were motivated to move it. As a consequence we can print 30"x40" images! (did not order the hardware for that as I don't anticipate needing it, but hey it's nice to know we can if need be). ECO was important as we run over 1,000/hour every day at least for an hour and we needed a press that can do that. We are often at 1,100 per hour with tables lifting up and down so my guess is we'll be printing 1,200 almost daily now that there is one less motion with the platens. Again, this translates into an extra 0.5-1% per day. 4/8 YOU with 4 heads (cost savings measure) will have 2 slots for flashes, so it will be a true 4 color press which covers about 60-70% of our work. This press is an absolutely incredible value for the money and in my opinion the best deal on the market for entry level equipment. We picked up a whole slew of ancillary equipment to speed up the production, including ROQ Cool (cooling attachments), 3 digital flashes (temp controlled rather then time), ROQ Press hot Iron and few other smaller extras.After my previous post, there was some grumbling about their support system via PM's and I spent almost an hour on the phone with one of the board members that had some issues to report. I expected there was going to be somebody with a problem, there always is. No company is perfect. My thinking was also that RYO is going through some growing pains and that was the cause of it. I reached out to Jeffrey without knowing, but fully expecting them to fess up and pony up to get the issue sorted and that is exactly what happened. The words out of his month were "We need to not only fix this, but also make it right!". I asked for a free set of youth platens (for the board member, not us, obviously) to help make up for the problem and without a hesitation the answer was "Consider it done!". It is the attitude we have with out customers that was extended by RYO. No BS, we will do what needs to be done. Period.The idea that ROQ is on a serious ramp up with innovation was a bonus. Just to be clear, we bought ROQ presses because of what they can do today, right now, not what they might be doing tomorrow. I have been thoroughly disappointed by lack of delivery on the promises before (personally and professionally), so any such discussion does not carry as much weight as anticipated. But, just like discounted cash flow, it is a factor and it influenced our decision. Imagine having a press that prints faster as it gets older. What a concept! How about this? You come to work in the morning and your press can do something it could not do the night before (like half index for example). This is what MHM used to be, the market leader in out of the box thinking. Now, ROQ has taken over! pierreROQ Cool! No longer availableROQ EVO Flash! No longer availableROQPRESS Iron! No longer availableROQ4YOU! No longer available
Congrats Pierre new equipment and growth is so exciting.Looking at the rate of speed the Cooling Head and Ironing Head move in the video you will not be any where near 1100 units per hour.
Eric, you might be thinking of the Roq Foggers. We use the roq cool here on our presses, and I know other guys that have ordered them in from portugal.
Quote from: T Shirt Farmer on November 10, 2016, 04:48:19 PMCongrats Pierre new equipment and growth is so exciting.Looking at the rate of speed the Cooling Head and Ironing Head move in the video you will not be any where near 1100 units per hour.Might want to go check out my instagram. Last year when we did hot market for the broncos we ran 1000 pcs an hour with both attachments going....The iron will slow things down but the roq cool does not.