pre-registration system

[GraphicDisorder]

Well we love our Tri-Loc.  Its easily worth the money in my opinion.  We are often dead nuts or need to micro maybe 1 head a little.  Its cut our set up time down a lot and we came from a VRS Vastex system.

What do you think makes the tri-loc more accurate?

Rubber Bumpers are just not going to be as accurate IMO as a block of allum.  Just my opinion.  We rarely had jobs dead nuts on the VRS, it was still good though.  With the Tri-Loc is the other way around now, we often have them be dead nuts with rarely needing adjustment. 

[Evo]

Would the stops actually play a roll if they were slightly off from press to exposure unit? The bumps on the exposure unit get all the screens burned in register. The bumps on the press get all the screens locked on press in register. So wouldn't the only difference be very slight in square and center? But the screens would all still register to each other.

Thoughts?

I think it's that the Tri-Loc has fixed, machined flat surfaces where the VRS has bumper style posts. Also, the Tri-Loc rear stop is farther back than the VRS, that may have something to do with it. Also, the Tri-Loc master frame has the 3 spring pins that push the frame into an exact position every time, where as the VRS is a screen on a tilted table relying on gravity.

The biggest thing though might be that double sided tape is used to register the films with the VRS. Tri-Loc relies on register pins and the films are not fixed to the screens.

[tpitman]

The VRS Comes with a steel table printed with a layout grid and platen outlines, and brass registration pins mounted at the top. You mount the carrier sheets to the table, tape your film to the carrier sheets, then mount the carrier sheet with film to the pins on the exposure unit. Look at Mooseman's photo for the location of the brass pins mounted on the far end of his exposure unit.

[Evo]

The VRS Comes with a steel table printed with a layout grid and platen outlines, and brass registration pins mounted at the top. You mount the carrier sheets to the table, tape your film to the carrier sheets, then mount the carrier sheet with film to the pins on the exposure unit. Look at Mooseman's photo for the location of the brass pins mounted on the far end of his exposure unit.

Ahh...well that's not how I understood how the system worked. As far as I knew it's lining up the films on a grid then pressing the screen down onto double-stick tape. I thought no reg pins were involved.

[Shanarchy]

The original VRS system is how tpitman described. It utilized the Vastex exposure system with pre-mounted pin locks and bump stops. The newer system is made to be used with any exposure unit, has the bump stops on the FPU and requires 2 sided tape.

I feel the 2 sided tape method leaves to much room for error and like the idea of the carrier sheets better.