Pallet arm Flex

[cclaud3]

Got a call, they are shipping a new core in about a month.

[Prosperi-Tees]

I just cant believe that it would take emailing the owner this thread to get some real action. But at least they are acting, some other companies do absolutely nothing. Ask Inkman.

[ebscreen]

To be honest....


This is an inexpensive "entry model" press, no?

Not to say that your issue is acceptable for anything, but I wouldn't expect
filet mignon from a McDonalds hamburger if you know what I mean.

[Prosperi-Tees]

It may be entry level but when you have been in the business 30+ years building machines you should be putting out a good product whether entry level or top of the line.

[ZooCity]

I just cant believe that it would take emailing the owner this thread to get some real action. But at least they are acting, some other companies do absolutely nothing. Ask Inkman.

That's a good point.  What I was trying to say earlier was that I give a lot of these mfg a B or maybe a C+ for effort, it just seems they are up against too much with their own product sometimes and need to know when enough monkeying around is enough.  I bet Brown would have saved $ by just hauling this one back to the plant and sending out another.  Or maybe testing properly before shipping in the first place, duh.   It's not the end of the world to screw up, it's going to happen and I fault no one for that.  It's what you do after it happens that really matters. 

I hope your core fixes the issues and gets the press running and hope I didn't sound like I was bashing anyone, I meant everything I said to be 'generally speaking' more or less and have no blind loyalty to any particular brand or machine,  just being frank with my opinion based on experience and experiences I hear about on here. 

eb has a point but I also concur that this sort of flex issue is unacceptable regardless.  Don't sell it at any price if it can't do it's basic functions like hold up it's screens and platens properly. 

[ebscreen]

It's all relative though. Alan who prints at 10PSI (kidding) is going to have a heck of a lot
less deflection than waterbased printers at 50 PSI. Even the PSI is relative to the physical
location of the squeegee however.

I challenge any of you to take a 2"x4" piece of square steel tubing 8 ft long attached at
one end only and place 40 pounds of pressure across a 16" width at the opposite
end, without deflection. Not as easy as it seems.

The original Multiprinters had pallet tip supports to help with this, apparently they were delightful,
aside from getting in the way of printing sweatshirts and totes.

[ScreenFoo]

That's one of the difficult things to assess--I've gotten buckets of ink that you could just about NEED one or two hundred of pounds of pressure on the squeegee before it was clearing--it's tough to make a call on the press being at fault when there are so many other pieces of equipment, techniques, and supplies playing a large role. 

I used to print on an auto that had some similar characteristics--the key for us was in keeping screen tension high, squeegees sharp, and inks on the thin side.

I'm glad to hear things are getting worked out as far as funny noises and registration though....

[cclaud3]

I should have mentioned, the new core is a redesigned/improved version. 2 or 3 components have been changed.

[cclaud3]

I wanted to post and update to the press situation. Here's the rundown.

They replaced the center/core of the original press. I believe it was in September 2012. Had to wait a few more months from when I posted this. Everything else was reused. Same issues with sloppy registration, creaking, squeaking on indexing, etc. The 1st & 2nd machine creaked horribly during the indexing. Technician couldn't get 4 or 5 color test job to consistently print in register. Technician left and I kept working with it.

Re-leveled press a few more times hoping for a miracle. Complained. Walked through everything numerous times over the phone for the next couple of months. Next step was for owner's son to fly out and see what was up with it. Had to wait a couple of months for the appointment. I believe they thought it was something I was doing? Or since I was able to output to some degree they thought it was ok? The machine would print but not very cleanly or reliably.

So he arrived in May 2013. We setup a 5 color test job and could not get it to hold. Adjustments resulted in no change in print or wild over corrections. Spent 1/1.5 days evaluating (can't remember)? Agreed that something was up so they needed to replace from scratch.

Replacement delayed once or twice but received in July 2013. Got old press broken down and new one put in. New one seems to be working fine.

So, to summarize, the process took an extreme amount of time. Understandably (but quite frustrating) they are a smaller shop that are several states away from me and don't have the manpower to be onsite in a reasonable amount of time. They sent out a couple people while I had the 1st press and spent a day re-leveling everything...after hours we could get some passable prints but setting up the next job was just as difficult. But the new machine appears to be the ticket. They modified & reduced the footprint of the press, which included numerous changes. The pallet arms are shorter which keep flexing to normal. They also made a couple of basic mods per my request. They compensated me (their offer not by my request) with 2 additional print heads, more youth pallets & an entirely new squeegee system that was released this year. BTW, the new squeegee/floodbar system is much nicer and you can actually-easily change angles and flip them out of the way to pull screens out.

So you may be asking why I didn't push for a refund.
It was the next step, I believe both parties knew that was the only option after agreeing to try the last replacement press. Neither party got heated and we are still working together. I was a little stuck too, as the shop was wired specifically for their equipment so there would be time/money/hassle in rewiring for another make due to the other mfg's presses needing air & chillers. I had already dropped 11k in the wiring (upgraded service, too), security & a new roll down door for the print area.

If the press keeps working like it has been then everything will be fine. Registration has been acceptable and the press is pretty quiet. I believe they are now making the new machines to the specs of the new one I received. Guess that is all for now.

Thanks.

[Extreme Screen Prints]

One of my press operators came from a shop in Indiana that Bought an electraprint and within months had them replacing the machine. Finally brown pulled the machine and refunded them. We are minutes from Brown and I would never buy anything made by them. The real problem is how do you build a good press if no one in the company knows how to print. The days of sloppy prints are gone and customers expect more. There target market are those shops just starting out that think getting a compressor and chiller is gonna cost them to much money and all electric is so much easier when in reality for a small press you can have less than $1500 in a compressor and chiller. The one thing that bothers me about our industry is all the manufacturers that will sell you something and say it does what it clearly can not do. This is were i give M&R props, they don't advertise stuff there presses can't do in a production environment.