Anatol Prodigy or Rapid Tag.. Which would you choose?

[ffokazak]

Cant decide...

Anatol looks good, but I don't know much about the company....

That being said I don't know much about ASPE either...

Anyone with experience with either want to chime in? Would appreciate it!

cheers!

[zanegun08]

We have two rapid tags, they work great, they are both two colors, but we only ever print 1 color on them as they don't really hold registration well.

We use them to print sleeves from time to time, but mainly neck labels by the 10's of thousands a week.

Small investment, and good money maker.  I'm sure both Rapid Tag or Anatol would work great.

[TCT]

I would say if you ever want to print good white ink, the Rapid tag would be a no.

Check out "The Tag Pro" -
http://theots.com/neck-label-printers/tag-pro-6/

SUPER nice guys there that know their stuff. They actually made the tag printer for Workhorse that Workhorse sold for like a year.

[IntegriTees]

I purchased a rapid tag in the summer of 15 and have printed a ton of neck tags with it. The whole time, I felt that it just wasn't up to my standards of what a press should be. I guess I'm spoiled with my nice M&R equipment.

Printing white or even trying to do a double pass is going to frustrate you. Adjustments to feel cheap along with the rest of the press.  It has made me a lot of money but I always wanted more.

So I am now the proud owner of the very first all electric prodigy in the US. I uncreated it yesterday and got it setup today. I can't really talk to it's performance but just in the few hours I've spent on a test shirts, I've found that it filled all the needs and wants I had with the rapid tag.

[ffokazak]

The price difference is quite significant with the two machines,

The Anatol is seemingly more robust, and I like the choppers.

Question about Anatol, how is the build quality, and support? I am a blue shop and i think it would be hard to top Big Blues service and quality of machines....

My only gripe with ASPE is every trade show I go to they give me a printed promo item, and the print looks like sh*t. Blurred, out of reg, bumpy... Most general population wouldn't notice, but to give products like that to a printer who looks at stuff like that daily is just wrong. I have walked away from ASPE's booth several times and said to myself if I were a manufacturer, and my trade show employees handed out product like that I would not be happy....

Hearing that the ASPE feel cheap makes me a little weary too... Even though they say made in the USA I see a lot of parts on there that are eerily similar to the chinese machines we have in house...

Leaning towards Anatol... If their service is good that would be better..

[IntegriTees]

The RapidTag is made in America but it might as well be Mexico.  they are on the border and you can feel that when speaking to anyone within the company.  Although....the few times that I have called in for issues, Javier has been able to fix them over the phone without problem.

The Prodigy is hands down a better tag press.  You get what you pay for.  Just in the day I've been tinkering around with it, the clear screen option (which moves the pallets just left or right of the print/flash stations is a very nice feature that has been sorely missed with the rapid tag.  Also, it offers a one button push to warm up the pallets.  It also lets you adjust where you want the print to start and stop along the path.  Which is great when you are ganging screens for neck labels.  Rapid tag doesn't have that feature and you just have to setup the screen just right.

A big difference is the movement from one index to another.  the Prodigy seems like it is making very fined tuned adjustments and then locks into forks.  The rapid tag has a toggle switch that makes the motor stop when it hits a screw underneath the pallet.  see the difference in build quality?

Also, the Prodigy has a test print button that when pushed, prints, flashes and brings it back to the load station.  this saves so much time over the rapid tag.

Can't really speak to Anatol service as of yet.  Other than Woody, my sales guy, has gotten back to me within minutes of me contacting with questions.  Time will tell.

And I understand about being a Blue shop.  I really wished M&R would have a tag press and I would have stuck with them.  But the Prodigy looked like the next best thing and thats why i made my decision to upgrade from the RapidTag.

[kingscreen]

We have a RapidTag.  It is what it is.  We hit ROI in less than 90 days so it has been worth it to us.
We often print White, often double stroke but we never P/F/P nor would I try to.  We mixed a custom "Tag White", with some additives to make it more friendly on that machine specifically.  Ultimately, I would ask yourself what are you really going to be doing on the machine. The RapidTag has been great for what we bought it for; printing 1 color inside tags.  I will add that we did have our PLC die while under warranty and it was quite an ordeal to get them to replace it. It took them over a month!

[ffokazak]

Thanks King,

Thats a valid point for sure. 100% I know were doing thousands of cool grey 7c neck tags, with a single stroke.

I don't ever want to buy a machine that limits me right off the bat. Will I ever print PFP white on the press, not often, but that day when all the big presses are jammed and we need 100 white on black sleeves printed, I would like to know that I have a machine that can handle it... I think the weakest point for me on the ASPE is the squeegee system. It just doesn't look solid...

I would love a M&R diamond back L, but 100 sf of floor space is tight for me right now. That press seems like the no brainer, if you've got the space.  Leave it setup for tags, but if you need a 3 colour print on bags, you can do it. One day maybe well have enough space haha

[3Deep]

I've never personally used Anatols tag machines but as far as the company and machines I give them a big thumbs up as I've had mine press now for about 8 years and I've only been down a few hours for service and they help me out over the phone saving me a cost of a tech.  My press is very well built and I wouldn't have a problem buying another in the future if we needed to, oh and price I think Anatol stuff more goodies into there press's than most for a good price..