TAS Machines - Most Prints

[colintas]

Hi everyone.

A very valued TAS customer made a valid point on another thread earlier regarding how many prints his machine had performed (10 million!) and how many breakdowns he had suffered in that time (only 1!) Examples such as this are the reason we are able to provide a remarkable 4 million print or 4 year warranty.

This got me thinking, how many prints have you guy's clocked up on your TAS? I appreciate on the very early machines from the early '80's, it may not be possible to have digital evidence, but even for you guy's, a rough estimate would be interesting. For those with a TPC, maybe you could post a picture of your total print count and add the year of manufacture as a point of reference.

Although admittedly you could argue that this is a little about TAS self promotion, I do also believe that there is a valid point to be made here about a machine which in recent years, has maybe not been promoted with the passion it deserves. There are a lot of people out there who are not aware of the remarkable longevity and performance of our products, so who better to inform them all of this, than their colleagues in the industry.

For your information, the largest print count I have personally witnessed on my travels was on a machine in Malaysia, which had 14,800.000 and the year of manufacture was 1998.

So guy's, I know you are a competitive bunch, let's see what results we get from this!

Good luck!

Colin Goode
Sales Manager - TAS International
www.tasinternational.com.au

[alan802]

There is only one TAS owner here that I know of and he's waiting on his machine .  Or I guess Boris still runs them?  I couldn't tell if his post meant that he used to run TAS machines or if he still does.  I'm very interested in seeing this thread grow.  I love bells and whistles but the more work we do, the more I lean towards reliability and printer friendly features.  I would love to have 10 million on one of our autos with one serious breakdown, that would be fantastic.  The way some operators abuse machinery I'm not sure that those shops could ever reach a milestone like that but there are some that could.

[colintas]

Hi Alan.

You're right and that's exactly my point. Only one customer you are aware of who visits this site, but I can assure you there are hundreds of machines in the US alone, all working everyday, so it is those guy's I would be really interested in hearing from.

You know probably better than I do, down time is everything in this industry and the commitment to reduce this to an absolute minimum in terms of machine breakdowns, etc, is the basis of the design of all our products and will continue to be so. It has worked for the past 35 years and we are committed to making it work for many more years.

Thanks for your feedback.

Colin Goode
Sales Manager - TAS International
www.tasinternational.com.au

[blue moon]

Ross here has two of them, both in several million prints range. . .

pierre

[Printficient]

There is a guy in Atlanta that has 4 or 5 of them.  I'll check his numbers.

[alan802]

Ross and Scott, are there any others here?  What about Boris, does he currently run TAS?  We need a TAS roll call, hopefully more will chime in.  I have always had a slight fondness for them for some reason and I've only seen one at a show.  It was a compact of some sort and I was interested in it but I came up to the booth at a bad time I think. 

[tonypep]

We had thirteen of them at Fortune Fashions

[JBLUE]

There are two shops by that have a total of 13 of them between the two. I know a shop down in LA that I bought some equipment from has 9. A shop down the street from me that closed down just sold his 1994 and it worked flawlessly.

Since probably only one tenth of one percent of the printers out there know forums even exist its going to be hard to put a number of how many like them. They are all over here in Southern California. I have been to more shops that have them than not. 

[Frog]

I have to believe that Tas themselves have some sort of record of initial sales and delivery locations, and then, further records of shops that ordered parts or service.
Maybe Colin could give a nudge in this direction to these owners. Win-Win

[TCT]

They are all over here in Southern California. I have been to more shops that have them than not.

That is what I have heard of Southern California. I can't speak personally, but I was told they are everywhere down there.

[colintas]

Thanks for your input guys.

I can't swear to the actual year (but I will endeavour to find out) but I know TAS have been supplying machines to the States for around 30 years. A conservative estimate is around 800 machines and as has already been suggested, many of them into Southern California, but they are also spread far and wide, from East Coast to West Coast.

I can also state guys (with a little fear of finding out I'm wrong, although I'm prepared to take that chance!) that out of those 800 machines and preceding 30 years of production, very, VERY few of them, if any, have been sent to the Screen Print Cemetery and in the vast majority of cases, are still running today.

I do know that as some company's, especially in SoCal floundered, many of these machines were relocated to company's in Central and South America, but I can personally testify from my travels to the region that they are all still running and pumping out production in perfect registration. Our machines may be slightly more refined these days, but we can never argue with the pedigree of those old units!

Otto tells a terrific story about his first installation over there being just days after the birth of his fist child. I'm sure he will be happy to fill in the details, but it went along the lines of introducing himself to his newborn, a quick kiss to his new family, advising Jess (his wife) of a couple of cab numbers to take her from the maternity ward to home and 2 hours later he was boarding a flight to LAX! I'm sure you will agree that shows a real commitment to customer service and one which remains to this day!

I look forward to seeing more contributions and if possible, maybe a couple more funny stories.

Colin Goode
Sales Manager - TAS International
www.tasinternational.com.au

[TCT]

Hey Colin, I am enjoying you shining some light on TAS here!

That 4 million/4 year warranty is nice! The way it should be, not having to worry about the press for 4 years is nice. Are you able to post the "small print" of the warranty, is there any? Like does a tech need to fly here(customer picks up airfare) to repair the machine from Australia?

Please don't take this as negative, it is just the term "warranty" or "guarantee" in the states doesn't mean anything anymore. Companies put in "small print" ways they can cover their behinds.

4 years says a lot about the confidence you guys have in your machines though!

[Evo]

My $0.02

I worked with a TAS machine at Cinder Block in Oakland in the late 90's. When they shuttered production in 2009, that same machine was up for sale. (wish I'd had the cash/room for it then)

It was a daily workhorse of their production for at least 10 years (their first auto) and the owner said they never had any issues with it.

I've worked with a couple other aside from that one and they were smooth and trouble free.

[colintas]

Hi Alex.

Not a negative question at all. I recognize that warranty issues can sometimes be a gray area, but we try to be as transparent as possible.

Basically, the answer to your question is that of course, for an Australian company to offer such an extreme warranty period whilst selling machines globally, we had better be confident that our products will stand the test of time. As you will know, this is a pretty insular industry and word spreads quickly, so if we hadn't met this obligation regarding servicing our equipment, I'm pretty sure you guys would know about it and I wouldn't be writing this 30 years on...our company would no longer exist due to bad publicity! Fortunately this isn't the case.

TAS America was originally set up as a sales and service organisation, as our company recognised the requirement to perform true after sales service. Again, that was in the 1980's, so pretty forward thinking for an Australian company back in the day!

Over the years TAS America has had it's good times and bad times and has had to move and evolve. I believe, certainly from a servicing point of view that the company is now as good as it's ever been.

In essence, as in the rest of the world, we use a combination of local companies, our own people and the customers themselves to look after any service issues. We have both online and telephone support to assist and have no hesitation in an extreme circumstance, when all else fails, to send a technician from Australia AT OUR OWN COST, should we be satisfied the machine has a severe problem within the warranty period and not one originating from operator error.

True to our word, we also warranty all parts of our own manufacture for the duration of the warranty period and will replace free of charge (again, except in cases of operator error)

I trust the above helps. Please appreciate that everything needs to be treated on its own merits and therefore occasionally can be open to interpretation simply due to an endless amount of different possibilities and circumstances, but the above is a true appraisal of our warranty procedure.

Colin Goode
Sales Manager - TAS International
www.tasinternational.com.au

[TCT]

Wow Colin, that is impressive! Thanks for the reply, great information.

I had actually originally considered a TAS at the beginning when we were looking for our last auto, but there was just so little info/resources/help in my area. It is nice to have you on the forum here as a resource.