New Shop Update

[DannyGruninger]

After some private messages, some visitors to the shop and a slew of emails I wanted to post an update on my new shop and the transition to the roq(sroque) equipment as there's been interest to hear how it has been. As I explained in an earlier post over the last several months I've been in the process of acquiring another denver based company in which was a big reason for my new building, needing more machines, more staff, etc. Basically my shop went from 5 guys to 30 guys, 50 screens a day to an average of 200 now. The scale in business, employees, artists, sales reps, among many other things has been entirely overwhelming at times but I am finally getting a handle on the changes which is making life better/good again around here. I would have considered my small 2 auto shop extremely efficient which made the first several weeks here very challenging while we were learning new presses, staff, processes, etc. I was at the point where I was becoming pretty deflated in the aspect we were not producing the numbers we should going from 2 autos to 4 autos. A big part of this was it took me several weeks to dial my i image ste cts with our new roq presses. For the first couple weeks we really struggled with setting up the presses as fast as we were setting our m&r presses up but after making some adjustments to our screens, cts, and general process we are now setting up the roq presses faster then we ever setup our previous machines. In the last 7 days we have not touched 1 micro on any of our presses. It is 100% truly a lock and load the screens in PERFECT registration. Over the last 7 days we have done over 300 setups and close to 1400 screens in which I feel is an amazing amazing number of jobs/screens to process without having to micro a screen. Over a couple years of working on the m&r system we had similar results but nothing that was this exact/repeatable. The biggest difference to me is the pallet system on the roq machines locks the pallet into place(and the same place) each and every time. Swapping pallets on the roq machines takes almost 80% less time then what it was taking us on our previous machines as well. I was a bit worried that we would not be able to setup jobs, swap pallets, or print at the speed we were in my previous shop but now that we have hit our stride we are doing everything quicker with the roq machines then we had been. One of my press operators runs a night shift for a company that has 7 mhm presses and he has stressed how much better he prefers the roq machines over the mhm's along with other companies. All the guys that I now have running presses have run everything from precision ovals, m&r's, anatols, mhm's, progressives, etc and I do not have one person here that is not overly impressed with what these machines are capable of doing. All in all, there were times where I was nervous the decision to switch to roq was not the best for me but now that we are operating and hitting our strides I feel 100% confident that I made the best decision for us. I honestly could not be happier with how the machines are running, how fast we are setting up, and the few minor issues that have arose have been taken care of by the roq/ryonet service team in great fashion. For anyone that wants to come see these machines in action or see the no micro setups for youself anyone here is more then welcome to come check them out. Combining a great cts like our m&r ste with these roq presses in my opinion is the ultimate setup considering all other packages that I know is out there. But for anyone that isn't sure about the roq machines you can be rest assured they will do what you need them to do plus much much more. Anyways, just wanted to pass along a quick update since I have been basically non existent around here for a while and have had lots of requests on how the machines are doing. We've printed a boatload of designs that once I can get caught up I will post in the whats been printed thread.

The doors are wide open for anyone who wants to come check the place out though and test drive any of our machines.


Danny

[3Deep]

Glad everything is working out for you Dan O, setup is one thing that can hinder the hell out of any fast past production.  If we are not careful those green machines might be the next big thing.

[tancehughes]

I wish I was closer to Denver so I could make a stop by. Maybe I'll have to schedule a skiing vacation soon!

[LuckyFlyinROUSH]

In for pics of the new place!

[jsheridan]

Ive been saying for years that registration is the largest barrier to efficiencey and this proves my point.
If you're touching micros, you're wasting time.

This is the sole reason why i no longer talk about MHM being a good choice as their registration system is now defunct.

Think about teespring for a second and how much time they will lose this year twisting knobs.

Good job Danny, i'd love to visit and see for myself.

[BorisB]

This is the sole reason why i no longer talk about MHM being a good choice as their registration system is now defunct.

Is there significant difference in registration system between ROQ and MHM? It holds screen just on top with  two pins plus airpressure against frame?

[alan802]

From what I have seen there isn't much difference between the Sroque and MHM when it comes to their film registration systems and the way the screens are set on press.  If the MHM sucks like John says then the SRoque would as well.  Maybe they hold the screens a little differently but overall I think they use the same principles. John's statements about MHM are the first I've ever heard about their registration system not being very good.  I can't see how it wouldn't be the best system out there if used properly, using film or CTS.  I would think a CTS and a press that doesn't require a pallet jig to be put on/off for every setup would be the best option.  Unless the press has trouble holding zero or there is slop in the pins and holders then the rest is human error if it doesn't work properly.   

[jsheridan]

I'm not familiar with the roq and how it holds the screen. Ive been told one side pins and the other is free floating like m&r so let danny fill us in.

As for mhm, the way the machine holds the screens in place is what i call positive locking. If you move the reg knobs, the next screen placed into that head will locate where the last screen was moved to, in sense moving the registration and requiring a "home". If you dont have the electro heads, your reg system moves job to job vs m&r tri loc which is free floating as the screen is located then locked into the head. If you move the reg, the next screens is not effected by the movement.

I had a top of the line CTS machine complete with pin system and i was never able to get it "just right" and my attempts to make it right were met with its good enough for us so i gave into twisting

The fact that danny is able to run job to job with zero twist is a testiment to those who wont settle for good enough.

[LoneWolf2]

If you were to do it all over again, would you still go the green route, or blue?
Also, for someone deciding between the two, what would be your biggest deciding factors on what to choose?

[1964GN]

The SRoque has three air clamps. 2 at the front of the head that pull the screen firmly into the pins, one in the back that lock straight down on the back of the frame. To use the micros you unlock the back clamp, adjust, lock the back clamp. The front clamps never get unlocked.

[alan802]

The Sroque has more than one screen locking system to choose from.  They have the MHM style with pin/bushings  then a U-clamp.

[1964GN]

Right... I was assuming he had the pin system but am probably wrong.

[Underbase37]

Glad to hear things are going good.

Murphy37

[alan802]

I wonder which one is the better option?  The pin system seems great but you have to put them on every screen, and we would have them on both ends at our shop to gang images.  Seems as if the U clamp would be fine and maybe you don't have to add anything to your screens???  I'd like to see a close-up of the U clamp and how it works.  Is there a video out there of that?...seems like I remember one that maybe Alex did a while back. 

[ZooCity]

s.roque also has a tri loc type platen that mounts on the arms.  I think there are 3 or more overall options for screen positioning.   Maybe Danny can fill us in when he finds time on which one he selected and why.

John, I could not agree more that in this day and age we should not be fiddling with micros.  I hate, just abhor it actually.   

And that's an interesting point of view on the MHMs.  I'm surprised to hear that your MHMs were not regging up when using CTS especially.  I understand the zeroing out issue but many MHM users have noted that the adjustments are so minor from screen to screen and job to job that zeroing is not an issue.  I personally like to zero a press after every job but I get that this won't happen in high production sometimes.  in any case, the s.roque would be no different than the MHM in this sense unless someone elected to use their 3 point/tri loc style setup.

Congrats on the successful expansion Danny, that's one hell of a jump in size!