i-Image STE on the way. Thoughts, advice, recommendations?

[cvreeland]

Howdy,
Long time no post I know, hope everyone round these parts is okay. The new year finds me at a new shop, & I'm trying to help with the  modernization process -- focusing on the screen room first.

We're already ordered the i-Image STE from M&R & it's on the way.

Art: I think I've got a grip on the workflow -- EPS files, & it rips them on the fly at the machine, so all art staff has to do is lay out files on a 23 x 31 template,  then drop then in a folder on the i-Image sever, right? If we need to do things like trap an under base, that will need to be a separate file?

Screens: Wondering what kind of real-world problems people have had that they didn't anticipate -- mesh tension -- how much does this affect ink deposit & exposure? How loose is too loose? We're running Ulano QTX on 100's & 160's & Saati Grafic PU for 195 & up. I'm working on standardizing tensions, but it's a struggle at this point to get ahold of every screen as it goes through the cycle, so some of the 110's & 160's are in the low 20's newton-wise, though I'd rather thy be over at 30 or so. Some of the 230's & 305's hover around 15 newtons.

Obstructions? How tolerant are these things as far as clearance? I know the image frame that holds the screen in place pushes the mesh up towards the print head away from the frame a little, but at what point does the solve. resist tape get in the way if it's peeling up? Do I really need to go back through all the older screens & put new white tape on the rollers if it's coming loose at all?

How bad are head crashes when/if they do happen & how frequent are they?

Exposure - I imaging that different exposure settings mainly control the speed at which the screen moves under the light? Is setting the thing up for 2 types of emulsion (both pure photopolymer) across 6 different meshes easy?

We're pretty excited to be moving on from film, though some of the folks who have been here a long time are apprehensive about the change, so the more info I can feed them the better. (we're supplementing our Nu-Arc with this, of course, so we have film & vacuum table as a fall-back while we learn)

Thanks!

Hope everyone here had a great Christmas and is having a happy new year, so far!

[ericheartsu]

We have the STEII, and the biggest issue for us, is that the tape on the roller frames constantly peeling up and getting in the way. There is an issue in the programming, when the pusher frame is coming back out, that it reads the height sensor, and you have to restart the printer. It's more of an annoyance, but it does happen frequently.

Other issues we've had is with the ink that goes through the printer. We just switched to the dye based ink, instead of the k ink that was originally sold with it. The dye works much better, but with that being said, all of a sudden we got air in our lines last night, and have been struggling with that all morning.

[Alex M]

Feel free to drop me a line so we can go over your questions. You have a pretty solid grip on what is going to happen with the unit, but i am glad to help button the last remaining issues up.
We have 24hr service on our digital equipment the same as screen print, the number is 847-410-3500.
Eric,
I will have our service team give you a call if you haven't already been in contact with them.
Thanks,

[ericheartsu]

Feel free to drop me a line so we can go over your questions. You have a pretty solid grip on what is going to happen with the unit, but i am glad to help button the last remaining issues up.
We have 24hr service on our digital equipment the same as screen print, the number is 847-410-3500.
Eric,
I will have our service team give you a call if you haven't already been in contact with them.
Thanks,

Hi Alex,
we've been in touch with them

thanks!

[shurloc]

Those tensions are scary! I'd love to get you some info on the EZ frame and our panels for roller frames if you think your shop would be wanting to make the move to better tensions. We have both options available and can figure out a good way to get your shop started for less than you think!

Shoot me and email or give me a call - Ron

360-805-4140 - ron@shurloc.com

[cvreeland]

We've got so much mesh here there's no way you're talking my boss into the prefab panels for at least the next year... I can't shock the production dept. with a bunch of crazy-tight screens, or they'll all just get torn, anyway. Incremental change there will do the trick. Just trying to get them all stabilized & into the same ballpark for now. We'll ratchet 'em up as the spring progresses. My first purchase was a roller-master, & that was a big deal for this screen dept.

That's kinda what I was afraid of on the tape & clearance -- been putting in time trying to clean that up but will have to redouble efforts.

Alex, I'm working with Bill Warrn here in Texas, & just had a good phone call with him about the basics of the install, training, etc. The whole process sounds relatively smooth to me. We take delivery on about the 18th & should have it online first week of Feb.

Another question: How easy/fast is it changing from a 23 x 31 pusher frame to a 20 x 24 pusher frame for manual screens? I hadn't even given manual size screens a second thought until just now. (It keeps slipping my mind -- I just spent 7 years at a shop that didn't even have a manual...) Obviously, you'd want to gang up your manual jobs for the day so you'd have to maybe change it once per shift, I'd guess uness it's really fast.

Everyone's loving this with the tri-loc, right? The art staff has been trapping everything because the printers are still hand-registering jobs. We've got 3 10-color Sportsmen, all pretty new -- 2012-14. Level pallets, frame holders, etc. They're in good shape. Hoping reg is more or less dead-on with the tri-loc so we can stop trapping everything. Used the tri-loc with carrier sheets & film at my last job & was pretty happy with it there. I used to butt reg everything & count on the 1/2 point spread on the press to do the trick, except for underbases. -- everyone says this is the thing that kicks it up a notch, though. True out there in the real world?

Thanks!

[DannyGruninger]

Let's just say this.... If someone came to my shop and tried to take my ste I would kill them. Don't have time to write a novel but everyone knows how I feel about our cts but I will say for my shop it's the best thing I've ever done head and shoulders above everything else. Between my old cts and my new ste I've been converted for 3 years now and if I had to go back to films I'd be getting out of the industry no questions asked. The day I go back to printing films is the day I hang up screen printing....

[jvanick]

we started with our i-Image on static frames and have had to do registration on almost every job after doing the initial tri-lock... the static frames were all over the place... found out the company that stretches our S mesh statics stretches them to 20N, after a few cycles, they're sitting around 15-16N.  Our 200's were all over the place.

when we had consistent (but lower) tension, registration was better, but still not great.

went to M3s, high tension (on the S-mesh, we're around 30-35N depending on thread count), registration is SO much easier now... sometimes just a tweak or 2 on the underbase, and rock-n-roll.

[Doug S]

we started with our i-Image ST on static frames and have had to do registration on almost every job after doing the initial tri-lock... the static frames were all over the place... found out the company that stretches our S mesh statics stretches them to 20N, after a few cycles, they're sitting around 15-16N.  Our 200's were all over the place.

when we had consistent (but lower) tension, registration was better, but still not great.

went to M3s, high tension (on the S-mesh, we're around 30-35N depending on thread count), registration is SO much easier now... sometimes just a tweak or 2 on the underbase, and rock-n-roll.

You upgraded to the ST instead of the the epson based?  Just curious? 

[jvanick]

sorry.. we still have the epson... momentary slip of mind/keyboard here .. (fixed in the original post to not confuse others )

[Doug S]

sorry.. we still have the epson... momentary slip of mind/keyboard here .. (fixed in the original post to not confuse others )

I was just worried that I'd be one of the few left with the epson based one. 

I agree with you.  When I use the M3's I'm rarely off.  With the ez frames it usually takes an adjustment here and there but I think it's more to do with the frame holder hitting the frame a little higher on the frame than the triloc.

[Alex M]

I have a video of me switching pushers frames  from 23x31 to 26x36 in 11 seconds.

[ericheartsu]

sorry.. we still have the epson... momentary slip of mind/keyboard here .. (fixed in the original post to not confuse others )

I was just worried that I'd be one of the few left with the epson based one. 

I agree with you.  When I use the M3's I'm rarely off.  With the ez frames it usually takes an adjustment here and there but I think it's more to do with the frame holder hitting the frame a little higher on the frame than the triloc.

we are getting better with M3s, but it still takes time

[alan802]

went to M3s, high tension (on the S-mesh, we're around 30-35N depending on thread count), registration is SO much easier now... sometimes just a tweak or 2 on the underbase, and rock-n-roll.

You don't say?  But so many people don't have time for all that.

Where you at now Chris?  Austin Screen Printing?

[cvreeland]

Yep, at ASP. They've been here 40 years! Ed finally began to modernize in earnest a couple years ago & ditched the Arrow Multiprinters. I don't like the Sportsman as well as I did the early 2000-era Challenger II's but they're fine presses.  There's not room for Challengers over here -- this place is built out! Trying to shoehorn in the DTS machine is proving to be a challenge.