screen printing > Equipment
Automatics...
tonypep:
Pretty sure any auto with side clamps can't take the tri-locs. Which rules out Anatol.
tp
Baron265:
--- Quote from: tonypep on May 19, 2011, 03:11:59 PM ---Pretty sure any auto with side clamps can't take the tri-locs. Which rules out Anatol.
tp
--- End quote ---
Not so. The side clamps just need a small modification.
blue moon:
--- Quote from: Homer on May 19, 2011, 03:09:11 PM ---
--- Quote from: blue moon on May 19, 2011, 02:51:47 PM ---
--- Quote from: alan802 on May 19, 2011, 02:23:52 PM ---The tri-loc will work with just about every auto press out there I think except for the mhm. I know it will work on ours, it should work on the anatols, at least I would think they would have made their presses to accept that tool, works on the Printex. So the one's I'm not sure about would be the Brown and Lawson and Anatol. I'm sure Paul will let us know if their presses will accept the tri-loc regi pallet.
--- End quote ---
MHM will not take the trilock, but it has it's own system that is arguably the best one out there. It is much easier to use than the others and it does not slow you down at all.
Few weeks ago, when in a hurry, we tore down a 7 color job, cleaned the squeegees and floodbars, popped in the new screens, loaded the ink and registered the next 7 color job in about 8 min. Three ppl in a hurry to go home on a friday, no better motivation. Registration was within 10 thousands of an inch!
There is a little bit extra you have to spend on the bushings for the screens (abou $8 per frame) and about 2-3 min to install them. After that there are no traditional clamps to hold the screens, they are held in place by the pins and you can take the frames out and put them in without loosing the registration. Additional benefit of the system is that you can adjust the micros on the fly (very production friendly, linear adjustments just twist to move. Nothing to unlock or release, just turn the knob.).
After using the frames with the pins, I would not go any other way. If MHM went out of business, I would buy a used press with bushing system before buying anything else. It is hard to believe until you actually spend some time with it . . .
--- End quote ---
can one of these systems be modified for an M&R system? pics? . .now I'm interested. . .
--- End quote ---
tri lock is an M&R product. I would imagine it would work on your Gauntlet. Rich (244) probably has some experience with it, try PM'ing him . . .
ZooCity:
We don't run an auto yet but I did a lot of hard thinking on pre-reg and came to a couple conclusions:
The whole point is to do your registration off-press and keep that machine spinning. It's not necessarily any more/less time consuming to align screens on press than off, just a division of labor.
Your press needs to be accurate enough and kept so to really effectively have a pre-registration system work. Otherwise you just have a pre-alignment system and you might as well diy a quick system for that and not worry about every film being perfect. I think it's go big or go home on this- commit systemically to your pre-reg system and doing your registration off-press or don't. There's a lot more to it then the devices that align the positives and frames.
Tri-loc and the Newman Pin Lock use carrier sheets and pins to which each film is aligned. Both systems share the benefit of forcing you to examine how each film stacks up while you are registering on the light table. Another advantage of the pins/sheets is you can library those sheets (if done properly) for re-orders, throw them on the pins and go. Disadvantage on both is the carrier film causing light scatter behind the positive, which is already causing scatter. Even if you use the short sheets to avoid this it's adding some underexposed area to the screen. Shouldn't be a huge issue with post-exposure but long-run discharge/wb could exacerbate this for some.
Tri-loc has a jig that must be secured to your expo glass. The same three points from the jig are there on your registration platen.
Newman Pin Lock does not require anything on your glass and uses it's titular pin system with swing out arms mounted under a platen to align the frames on press.
Both are specific to the width of your screens.
The MHM system is freaking awesome looking to me. Built in reg system + linear micro adjustment that doesn't need locked? Yes please. The auto-reg presses they make are probably mind-altering to use I would imagine and a brilliant concept.
In our case, I couldn't find any other reg systems that can accommodate 25" wide frames or seem to be accurate enough to justify purchasing rather than fabricating yourself. I settled on the Pin Lock system but it's not cheap and the unfortunate reality for us is that our chameleon is not accurate enough to justify the expense of the system: we have side clamps but don't have air-locks, need to use M3 adapters to clamp our frames, and I've noticed that, with the weight of our screens on the press the micros will walk out of registration frequently during heavy production. We're also constantly fighting to keep everything parallel because we're indexing this heavy machine with our platens as there's no where you can grab the press that won't contribute to knocking the platens out of level.
If this lengthy post is too far off-topic, somebody could move it to a new category and we could carry on a discussion there. I'd love to hear more thoughts on this.
Thanks as well for starting this thread Whitewater, we're getting to the point where manual production ain't cutting it anymore and this thread has, in part, helped me narrow it down to the fact that I want us buying new.
alan802:
On the subject of pre-reg systems, I've built several over the years and I have half of the newman pin lock system. I have the swingout pallet arms and I have been thinking of a way to build a DIY with the pin lock system, but haven't had time to sit down and do it. Personally, I think if I can come up with a way to use that pin lock system without carrier sheets, it will be better than using a 3 point stop block system. I'll keep everyone informed on the progress of this project.
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