Tips for registering jobs on M&R series 1 presses - Gauntlet, Challenger

[ZooCity]

I like our little GT-6 a whole lot, it's been getting piles of work done for us.  Trouble is, it's hell to initially register.  We use a pin lock and, even when it locks in dead on, the platen + head deflection makes a mess of things.  Always high or low reg from one color to the next.  The heavy pressure and limited gain of wb printing does not help out.

Our micros are in very good condition, the press is in registration, paralleled every other week (switching to every week soon), I set up any job on the auto to use identical screens wherever possible for identical squeegee pressure, we found that tilting the plane of the platens up 1/16" of an inch on the outside mitigates some of it...

...but man, I see my printer, who can setup a job about as fast as you can blink, struggling out there with butt reg jobs what would take him that eye blink to lock in on the manual.  I feel the pain as I too have taken 45min to setup a 2co butt reg DC job. 

Any tips from you veteran operators to help us along?  I understand that there's a ceiling to every machine but we're not ready for a new one so we gotta make lemonade here.

[Prosperi-Tees]

So funny but not really! I was just about to make this thread when yours popped up. I just struggled for about 45 minutes lining up an underbase with 2 colors on top and was thinking wow there has to be someone out there with some tricks. I could have set this job up on the manual in less than 5 minutes, 10 tops. Strange thing is on our Gauntlet some heads have constant pressure on the squeegee and some dont. My question would be what do you do after that intial strike off and find you have to move some? Turn off the machine so the squeegee relax?

[ZooCity]

First off, that's weird, if some squeegees will chop up after print you have the second bank of mac valves on your model and all should be able to do that.  Ask M&R and troubleshoot this.  Maybe sticky carriage guides, maybe need new cyls, new macs or maybe something totally different.

When we need to micro we:

Unlock the sq choppers and pull the pressure off.

Small bump, leave screen locked and adjust micros. (thx to whoever suggested this on here)

Larger movements, unlock rear screen clamps, adjust micros.

*remember to "back off" the micros so they are not "loaded" or you will chase yer tail here.

Reset pressure (try to get as dead close to the pressure you were at before adjusting).

You can build an air dump for the heads to dump the air out of the chopper assy and then flip it back on if this is too much agg but it costs a bit per head to build these and attach them.

[Prosperi-Tees]

They dont necessarily chop up, they stay in the down position but they are not "loaded" with air so you can push them up and down, others are loaded with air and are chopped "loaded" in the down position. Does that make sense?

I will have to remember to back off the micros, I did not do that this afternoon.

What do you mean by "unlock the squeegee choppers and pull the pressure off"? Do you mean remove the squeegee? Nevermind now I understand that one. The gauged twist knobs on the choppers would work wonders here.

[JBLUE]

1. Build yourself a reg board. Very easy and it does help a ton for consistency on the older machines.

2. Dont place your screens all the way against the back of the screen holders. When you lock the screens if you are using statics it will cause them to jump a little.

3. Practice. I can tell you where to put the screen on each of the ten heads on my machine and which way it will move when clamped. I can usually dial in a 6-8 color job on our Challenger in 3 or less test prints. It really has boiled down to knowing every little tweak my machine has. If you dont know or cant remember leave a note on each head about what happens when you clamp or make an adjustment. You will know it in no time and cut the spinning of the wheels to almost nothing.

[Homer]

preachin to the choir zoo...my first question is what's this business you are paralleling every other week? platens? the press? why?

you have to "mis register" the screens to the north by about 1/8". then when you apply squeegie pressure, you put them in reg...if I remember correctly, it even says this in the manual. I have one, I'll look it up. Like J said, every head acts different. we have one head that moves multiple directions with one micro adjustment..it's frustrating to say the least and I STILL say if there was a way to have the squeegie in the up position, reg wouldn't be such an issue with these old machines....we have made about ten different reg devices and NONE of them worked. now on my new gauntlet, my reg device works extremely well....keep on doing it and learn every little quirk about each head.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Would an MHM FPU help or just overkill? Something simple like the Vastex board would probably help. I just have a clear film sheet that I line films up on and place the screens over top with double sided tape. I find im way off, up to a 1/2" or more at times cause when I put the screen over the top the film moves and not using any sort of stop blocks. I just need to make a board I suppose.

[JBLUE]

Would an MHM FPU help or just overkill? Something simple like the Vastex board would probably help. I just have a clear film sheet that I line films up on and place the screens over top with double sided tape. I find im way off, up to a 1/2" or more at times cause when I put the screen over the top the film moves and not using any sort of stop blocks. I just need to make a board I suppose.

A trip 2.5 hours south is all you need Gerry. Come here for two days and run some jobs and you will be months if not more on your learning curve.

For those of you that do not have rear micros. Get them!

[Prosperi-Tees]

Would an MHM FPU help or just overkill? Something simple like the Vastex board would probably help. I just have a clear film sheet that I line films up on and place the screens over top with double sided tape. I find im way off, up to a 1/2" or more at times cause when I put the screen over the top the film moves and not using any sort of stop blocks. I just need to make a board I suppose.

A trip 2.5 hours south is all you need Gerry. Come here for two days and run some jobs and you will be months if not more on your learning curve.

My wife and i have been talking about it getting down to see you. I think before the end of the year we will. But we will have to make it a mini vacation with the kids as well. We have no family up here to watch our kids. Its us and us. Maybe we will go to Universal Studios! How far is that from you?
For those of you that do not have rear micros. Get them!

[broadway]

Page 7 of manual, #4 deals with screen elongation

[starchild]

It seems like they just threw that word "elongation" in there. You see elongation is just a characteristic of the mesh to be bought to a specific tension with minimum elasticity in the case of LE meshes. Or you can say at a given percentage of stretch for all meshes..

Image misregistration (image stretch) however could/would happen, at your set off contact, if the inkwell from squeegee edge to screen frame is at minimum distances.

So using the specified screen for this press, with the tolerated maximum image area and squeegee lenght for this press at the measured off contact distance for the measured screen tension will help with image registration tolerances.

And then continue with the instructions in the manual..