CTS VS Adding Auto

[Printficient]

We have the Douthitt wax unit.  We are currently doing ...... 2-4 screens a day.  We have the MHM Xtreme S Type and Shurloc frames.  I will say that it is ALL about the support.  Mark at Douthitt is the bomb.  Call anytime and boom he will not hang up until he is satisfied that you are satisfied.  I run a screen print division of a large offset printer.  He just started the textile division and bought what you would expect an offset printer to buy.  If it can be automated I have it.  To quote the guy from Jurassic Park "spared no expense"  There are many good units out there and a few great units.  But even a bad unit with great support trumps a great unit with bad support.  Do the research and but what fits.  There are equipment manufacturers other than M&R.  Look at all and then make your choice.

[LuckyFlyinROUSH]

I added CTS... I only have two presses. Just the Tri-lock factor alone will pay back your investment quicker than you think. I've got an ROI on an excel sheet I can send you if you want me to - Austin@webem.com

You plug in your own numbers (wages) screens per day/setups per day and it will tell you what you save. Ours paid for itself in a year. We also didn't use tri-lock before.

I am an M&R fanboy - Just because of the service. I can't say our CTS has been all roses. It has done funny things multiple times. We have had to re-install the software twice. Multiple trouble shooting sessions on the phone, and even had to replace the PWC and up/down board. Having said this...the machine was always back up and running within an hour or two. The Service at M&R cannot be beat.

[Underbase37]

Both will increase production capabilities.

But if you're not using your triloc bc your guys are old school and feel they can setup just as fast by eye, then CTS isn't going to do much for you at press, as far as setup speed goes.
If you are not using the triloc now bc you don't like carrier sheets, you should see big improvements with a good CTS and triloc.

We save a lot of screens to file and reprint. The other day I watched one of our employees take twice as long setting up a job that we had on file that was burned OG with carrier sheets, compared to the same type of job we have been setting up with CTS (using triloc ). I'm sure some have better results using carrier sheets than us, for us it was just too inconsistent for our shop, and a lot of our guys would still setup by eye. Our CTS has fixed that.

It sounds like you have read all the ROI, so I won't go into that.

If 60 screens a day is all you can produce now with the equipment you have, the right CTS will more than likely  increase your capabilities, and allow you to produce more.
Now using the triloc with CTS is where you will see your increase in setup speed allowing you to get more out of what you have now.

30 screens a day per press per day isn't the worst you could be doing, depending on the type of job and type of garments.

On the side of a new press. CTS won't allow you to print another 5k impressions per press per shift, but a new press will....so if that's what you need, a new press may be best for your shop.



Murphy

[AntonySharples]

Am I the only one who thinks any shop could benefit from CTS?  I don't care if you do 10 or 50 screens a day, anytime you can automate and produce predictable results, your production will rise and costs will fall.

[LoneWolf2]

^^^ I agree with you. I may do a dozen or two screens a day, and CTS is next on my purchase list. It's worth it alone to not have to deal with the headaches of lining stuff up manually and taping up reg-marks.


Still think CTS.
Much cheaper than a new press and the crew to run it.

[dirkdiggler]

^^^ I agree with you. I may do a dozen or two screens a day, and CTS is next on my purchase list. It's worth it alone to not have to deal with the headaches of lining stuff up manually and taping up reg-marks.


Still think CTS.
Much cheaper than a new press and the crew to run it.
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If u want to see one, I think you are just up the street from me.

[Doug S]

Am I the only one who thinks any shop could benefit from CTS?  I don't care if you do 10 or 50 screens a day, anytime you can automate and produce predictable results, your production will rise and costs will fall.

I am 1 that probably averages 10 screens a day and have Dts.  I have never regretted.  If all we did was screen print then I would've never made the move but having a dts has given me much more time to work on the other things our shop is involved in. 

[mk162]

we are probably similar in size to shirtshack, we average between 10-20 screens a day.  I would NEVER look back.

[Croft]

Am I the only one who thinks any shop could benefit from CTS?  I don't care if you do 10 or 50 screens a day, anytime you can automate and produce predictable results, your production will rise and costs will fall.

I am 1 that probably averages 10 screens a day and have Dts.  I have never regretted.  If all we did was screen print then I would've never made the move but having a dts has given me much more time to work on the other things our shop is involved in.

With the lower numbers are you able to gang jobs up on the screens like you would with film?

[GraphicDisorder]

When we got our CTS we were only printing 4 days a week, maybe 10-15 screens a day.  We are doing 100-150 screens a week now and printing 5 days a week.

[Sbrem]

Am I the only one who thinks any shop could benefit from CTS?  I don't care if you do 10 or 50 screens a day, anytime you can automate and produce predictable results, your production will rise and costs will fall.

I am 1 that probably averages 10 screens a day and have Dts.  I have never regretted.  If all we did was screen print then I would've never made the move but having a dts has given me much more time to work on the other things our shop is involved in.

With the lower numbers are you able to gang jobs up on the screens like you would with film?

I would think you run the screen twice for that, once, turn it 180°, run it again, or save a special file combing the two jobs...

Steve

[alan802]

Alan, are your 3 solid guys also making screens, cleaning up or are only on the carousel?

The guy that develops, reclaims and coats screens also catches at the end of the dryer.  My press op stays at the press but the other 2 guys and my part timer can do anything else that needs done from tearing down the press to stacking up shirts.

[Doug S]

Am I the only one who thinks any shop could benefit from CTS?  I don't care if you do 10 or 50 screens a day, anytime you can automate and produce predictable results, your production will rise and costs will fall.

I am 1 that probably averages 10 screens a day and have Dts.  I have never regretted.  If all we did was screen print then I would've never made the move but having a dts has given me much more time to work on the other things our shop is involved in.

You can gang, I've never created a special template to run 2 images at the same time.  I've just flipped the screen and ran it through the second time for the 2nd image. 

With the lower numbers are you able to gang jobs up on the screens like you would with film?

I would think you run the screen twice for that, once, turn it 180°, run it again, or save a special file combing the two jobs...

Steve

[shaneds]

Thank you for all the insight, I have more numbers to crunch based on our shop and our current type of production. After seeing the POV's in regards to getting more out of our current crew and equipment, I am believing that CTS will probably be the right choice for us currently. I will look into our current set up times, and see how many more short run jobs we can fit into a week. As stated before we may eliminate some of that second shift. I'm excited to also see the quality of the screen as well. I feel like we'll be able to better capture some of the smaller halftones like 5% and under compared to our current set up, maybe we won't. I'm sending off a job to the CTS MFG to be made for me. When I get it back I'll test real life set up times in our shop using the CTS. Thanks again for all the response, the info on here is priceless.



 

I added CTS... I only have two presses. Just the Tri-lock factor alone will pay back your investment quicker than you think. I've got an ROI on an excel sheet I can send you if you want me to - Austin@webem.com

I'll reach out to you on this. Thanks for offering it.

[alan802]

As one of the guys told he didn't understand (but I really do)

Steve

I think I'll just delete my smartass remark on this as to not completely derail this like I do most of the CTS threads.

I find it hard not to comment on some of the other posts in this thread that I disagree with. I don't have the time to spend arguing with people on some of the things that have been said here so I'll just continue to ignore them even though I believe they do absolutely zero in helping other shops make the right decision when it comes to this important question.  I've spoken with many of the leading experts in the CTS field, and many sales people who are trying to sell them to me, and if anyone would like to ignore what they have to say on what shops will benefit more and less from a significant investment like CTS then by all means, ignore them. 

If you hate film and have money to burn, burn it.  A CTS shop hopefully will run smoother than the same shop using film, but I think there are many shops out there that prove quite firmly that you can produce a ton of work with film.  I'd venture to say that half, if not more than half of the top performing shops (production efficiency and quality) on this forum don't have a CTS.  And also, a CTS isn't going to make a bad shop into a good shop.  They should make a really good shop great, but a great shop only marginally better.  I think there is a diminishing return from CTS when you already have fast setups and efficient pre-press routines.