Single arm automatic

[3Deep]

So I'm going to answer my question with a question, is there really any use for a single print automatic press?  I run a across a the Sophia this weekend while looking at some Roq press vids, I'm thinking if the company built this machine then someone is buying it.  I know many years ago I had a old multi printer and kept one single head for single automatic printing but never used it after installing the new auto. Here is a link https://youtu.be/vHnskm2dpsE, but I can see it if your needing something compact which this is.

[Frog]

The pluses, would be consistency in print (especially useful with halftones), and of course, less physical exertion.
Now, it's a matter of how much of one's market could take advantage of this machine and its obvious limitations.

[TheGhost]

Poster printers use single automatic machines, this doesn't look like one for poster folk. Not sure how this would work out for people like us.

[Sbrem]

We ran tens of thousands of one color prints in my old shop, and in my own. Fast, easy on the arms. Mostly t-shirts, a lot of mouse pads, cloth calendars, and a gazillion of those foam hats with the spiral cut in the middle, which would let you pull them down over your head once you had soaked it with water... A Cameo 18 it was.

Steve

[ebscreen]

Tote bags and the like. And I suppose single color shirts. Relabels?

At any rate a flatstock auto will be faster as you're not waiting for the silly thing to
"index". This is a classic example of a relatively talented person missing the can/should
bigger picture. Can you build a single platen single color press? Yep.

Throw another platen on there and bam, doubled your output.

[zanegun08]

It's kind of cool, but would have to be inexpensive to make sense.

I've seen a similar setup for number printing with a "semi" automatic press before.

I think you'd be better off with something like the https://aspesite.com/the-rapidtag-lp2xl/ or https://aspesite.com/rapidtag-lp4/

However their machine takes standard screen sizes, and looks a little more built robust.  Technically you could add a flash to it as well and print flash print for a single color on dark.

I think it's cool, but maybe a single print head with two pallets like ebscreen said, or something like https://www.lawsonsp.com/screen-printing-equipment/textile-equipment/automatic-screen-printing-presses/mini-max this where you move the pallets but the press prints would make it much more versatile.

What's it cost is the real question, I bet you could make money on it though, if you print lots of one colors it could save your arms.

[Sbrem]

Tote bags and the like. And I suppose single color shirts. Relabels?

At any rate a flatstock auto will be faster as you're not waiting for the silly thing to
"index". This is a classic example of a relatively talented person missing the can/should
bigger picture. Can you build a single platen single color press? Yep.

Throw another platen on there and bam, doubled your output.

We did this as well, we took a Filbar flatbed, removed the vacuum bed, rigged up 2 Rototex bases plates, which we got from Advance, long gone now. There was some finagling, but it got done, and print thousands of shirts. A pretty large frame though, like 50" x 40", so a very large vacuum frame was needed to expose them.

Steve

[ZooCity]

Why, in the name of all that is holy, would you want a basic industrial printing press controlled by your smart phone?  Or networked?

[Prince Art]

There was time when something this could have made a lot of sense in our otherwise manual small shop. 1-colors have been bread & butter work for us for a long time. But the price would have had to be pretty low to justify it. We looked into old American Cameos that had been or could be retrofitted for shirts. One sticking point was that they didn't take 23x31 screens. (Or didn't give the same stroke length we normally offered, or something like that.)

Why, in the name of all that is holy, would you want a basic industrial printing press controlled by your smart phone?  Or networked?

  Yeah, right!?

[Sbrem]

There was time when something this could have made a lot of sense in our otherwise manual small shop. 1-colors have been bread & butter work for us for a long time. But the price would have had to be pretty low to justify it. We looked into old American Cameos that had been or could be retrofitted for shirts. One sticking point was that they didn't take 23x31 screens. (Or didn't give the same stroke length we normally offered, or something like that.)

Why, in the name of all that is holy, would you want a basic industrial printing press controlled by your smart phone?  Or networked?

  Yeah, right!?

For us, the Cameo 18 was an addition, we already had an auto. The stroke length was short compared to a t-shirt press, so we didn't print tall images on it, lol. It was in the 300+ shirt per hour range, one more press feeding the dryer from the side.

Steve

[StuJohnston]

One sticking point was that they didn't take 23x31 screens. (Or didn't give the same stroke length we normally offered, or something like that.)

22x31's don't 'fit' but I took off the end caps on the arms and the part that connects to the arms that holds the screen sticks out a little. The claim is a 13x18 image area. Works great for single color. Not all cameos are set up this way though, mine's an early one, the newer ones look less modifiable that way.

[Prince Art]

22x31's don't 'fit' but I took off the end caps on the arms and the part that connects to the arms that holds the screen sticks out a little. The claim is a 13x18 image area. Works great for single color. Not all cameos are set up this way though, mine's an early one, the newer ones look less modifiable that way.

Interesting, did not know that was possible!

[rusty]

I dont know of this fits into this thread but just found out M&R has some small possibly electric auto presses coming out very soon. Basically their version of the rapid tag and another small press.

[californiadreamin]

I dont know of this fits into this thread but just found out M&R has some small possibly electric auto presses coming out very soon. Basically their version of the rapid tag and another small press.

Are these made in the USA or are they the new ones being made in India?

[rusty]

India