Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison
When they work they are good and avoid using film.BUT...They are a bottleneck in the workflow and if they are out of use then you have a problem.
I have had a Kiwo I-Jet for four years. We are running one shift and doing up to 150 screens pretty easily. Our set up is one person images, exposes, develops, and tapes up screens. A good person can do all this plus coat screens. (OK we have a coating machine, so we can coat and image at the same time) I know three other shops that have the same brand machine, and they all feel the same as me....this machine alone has helped us grow. I have never experienced more than a few hours of down time, and that has been rare. Perhaps three times? Since we image a day ahead, even a little down time won't kill me. It may be a strain, but it won't shut us down. As far as a bottle neck, I'd beg to differ. Imagine life without film. Everything is digital, stored on servers (and backed up of course) A few keystrokes and you have your files. I will go into much more detail later, but have to split for now. I will also search for a few articles on the subject. Throw your questions and opinions my way. I'll answer and respond as best I can.
Side question: what about projection? Is that completely dead?
Quote from: Frog on May 27, 2011, 12:17:35 PMSide question: what about projection? Is that completely dead?No, but almost.There are even direct-to-stencil inkjet printers large enough to take the place of some if not most of the projection methods.One emulsion used exclusively for projection - the only existing example of the sixth type of emulsion (photopolymer only) was dropped from the market by ulano over 4 years ago...
Speed:It takes 8 min to image screen with image that's 45x65 cm. We print at 720x720 dpi. Quality:We print 65lpi halftones and they look ok. Dots are not as sharp and round as when using imagesetter, but after you apply transfer to T-shirt you don't see this difference anymore. On paper and with magnifier there is notable difference. But we wash out 5% dots easier.