Roller Frame Abuse

[alan802]

Look at what I'm dealing with.  This is insane, pathetic and you have to try to do this type of damage to a screen.  I've found 4 so far with those "teeth" marks from a tape dispenser.  I'm going to review the cameras and see if I can see someone trying to damage a screen.  One might have this done but more than that and I'm convinced someone is doing this on purpose.  If I see it done on the tapes then we will be one less employee by the end of the day.  I'm furious and I just gave the guys the opportunity to come clean and all 3 pointed fingers at the other 2.

 



This is beyond mishandling the screens, and I put in about 20 minutes per screen to make sure we have the very best tools for the job and this is what I've got to deal with, I don't think so.  I put in a lot of extra work so we have properly tensioned screens in production but this crap is driving me crazy.  I have tried several different ways of handling the screen problems and maybe I'll just throw 100 low tension statics out there and let them struggle and then maybe they'd have more appreciation for properly tensioned screens...but I doubt that would work either.  I've been nice, I've screamed, I've thrown things, I've dog-cussed the hell out of everyone, I've been an A-hole, I've been supportive and nice about it, and it just seems like it just gets worse.  I'm writing up employee warning reports against all three of them and have them sign them, wonder how that is going to turn out? 

And then I found a shirt we printed last week in the bottom of the dryer bin that wasn't put into the box so one of our customers is short one shirt and nobody seems all that concerned when I showed it to them.  Guess I'll do another write-up for that and watch the finger pointing that comes from that.  Not a good start to the week here.  I'm about to go on the warpath.  I've tried to set the procedures and trust them to do them right but they clearly are not so that means I will be in their business all day, every day until I can trust them to do things right without me in their faces.

[inkman996]

How does a tape gun get anywhere near a screen in  the first place?

[Grumpy Ole Artist]

Simple fix, but the "rank & file" won't like it....Take away their dispensers! I have always just picked up a roll, peeled out the tape next to the frame (To get the length right), bite a nick in the corner of the tape, and tear it off...Unless they decide to chew on the mesh, that should stop it.
(On the plus side, It should be easy on camera, to see press ops bent over and gnawing on the screens!) LOL! Deep, cleansing breaths man!

[alan802]

How does a tape gun get anywhere near a screen in  the first place?

It's the clear scotch tape dispenser that we use to tape the film to the screens.  It's amazing to think someone has managed to slam a screen down on top of that dispenser.  It does sit right next to the film positioning unit but still shouldn't ever come into contact with a screen.

[T Shirt Farmer]

My tape dispenser is mounted to the wall with double stick tape on the back of it... might work for you

[inkman996]

How does a tape gun get anywhere near a screen in  the first place?

It's the clear scotch tape dispenser that we use to tape the film to the screens.  It's amazing to think someone has managed to slam a screen down on top of that dispenser.  It does sit right next to the film positioning unit but still shouldn't ever come into contact with a screen.

Gotya, I thought you meant a packing tape gun. But damn how they can slam a screen onto a scotch tape dispenser is uncalled for as well.

[ebscreen]

And nobodies going to mention that if ya had a CTS this would have NEVER HAPPENED!!!!!1

[Flying Colors]

I feel your pain Alan... The people here just do not seem to understand how fragile these screens can be and most of the time it is sheer laziness. Instead of putting a screen in a rack, they lay it upright and it slides down. Or being careless when loading ink into the screen. I have fired one person for misuse of screens and to be honest everyone else took notice for a month but old habits started creeping back in. It is a constant battle for us to remind them to take care of the screens.

Greg Kitson gave me tip one time and he makes his employees sign the frame after it rips. It is a good idea but if they are not admitting to the crime you will never have anyone to sign the frame.

Another idea I had and started doing was keeping a tally with a sheet posted on the production floor. I used an excel spreadsheet and in one column had reasons a screen can rip like hit a zipper while printing, ripped during reclaim. or imperfection in floodbar and the next column an empty box where someone can walk over and put a hash mark there. It seems anonymous but I am sure you can figure out who is making the tallies.

Good luck...

Mark

[sweetts]

That looks intentional man if not there is an employee who could care less. Sorry dude that blows


RT Screen Designs
www.rtscreendesigns.com

[ZooCity]

I never yell at anyone about mesh breakage here but I do layout the costs and labor involved as well as the value of a work hardened screen.  When breakage happens everyone does this, every time and we go over it together:

• What caused the break?
• How can we prevent similar breakage?
• Make any necessary changes and make sure we are all up to speed.

9/10 times breakage occurs in the image area simply from normal wear and tear.  Everyone needs to respect it though, it's really important.  That sucks what yer dealing with, I wouldn't tolerate it but I would be careful about generating a fear culture in the shop at the same time. 

It sounds like you have some overall crew issues though. Everyone in the shop should be concerned about forgetting pcs in an order. 

[alan802]

Very rarely will I get a busted screen that I can't find where it happened and then decide what caused it, but there are a few that I know were caused by something falling into the screen or in the ink and it wears a hole, but the vast majority of our screen busts are like the ones I showed.  We have to be very careful with our flood bars since we use a hard fill stroke but we keep sanding sponges around for that and they are very well kept.  One day I did throw one across the shop and my printer walked out.  I think I overreacted but so did he, I was mad because I saw him bust it by dropping it down on the table while taping it, a 330/30 by the way.  It had been the 4th 330 to bust in a week (shurloc EZ panels @ $30+/per panel) and we were busting 3-5 screens a week easily for a month straight when I finally blew up.

I've been kicking around the idea of numbering each screen in the inventory and keeping a spreadsheet of the mesh count, date stretched, retensions, tension, brand/series/model, date busted and a few other stats but I have been waiting till I get all my empty roller frames meshed up.  No reason I can't do it now though I've just been putting it off and thought I had a legit excuse, I don't.

[Socalfmf]

hey not to sound like an assh*le..but really breaking 3-5 a week for a month before you did anything.  are you running this shop or them? 

I view this as theft.  I would have someone(s) gone real quick...if they do not respect the equipment they make a living with do you expect them to respect the customers shirts and give them the best quality possible?

This sucks but dude...man up and do something NOW!  not in a month

[GraphicDisorder]

Ill go ahead and comment so I can see the incoming LOLZ.

[3Deep]

Alan I would have to toss my own ass out the shop I had tension up some rollers and they were busting like crazy, just the slight touch the wrong way and zip!!!  Being careful is key 30 bucks adds up quick.

Darryl

[alan802]

hey not to sound like an assh*le..but really breaking 3-5 a week for a month before you did anything.  are you running this shop or them? 

I view this as theft.  I would have someone(s) gone real quick...if they do not respect the equipment they make a living with do you expect them to respect the customers shirts and give them the best quality possible?

This sucks but dude...man up and do something NOW!  not in a month

I'll say that that's not an a-hole approach to my situation and I'll comment on why there were 16 screens busted in under 5 weeks.  It was literally like chasing a ghost.  It's not like I sat on my hands that entire time just watching screens bust.  I did things the first 4-5 screens that were busted and like I said, chasing a ghost.  You know there is a problem, you know why they are busting for the most part, and you have a 33.3% chance of getting the right guy on any given screen, but then it's most likely that all 3 of them are busting the screens with 1 of them being the biggest offender most likely.  I believe I commented on this forum several times during that period and trust me, things were done about it that's why it has slowed down considerably since then, but yeah, I wish something would have stopped the rest of them from busting. 

I'm sure many of you will attest to running a shop with multiple employees, the amount of "throwing under the bus" and finger pointing that goes on with my guys is comical.  I spent hours looking at the video to see If I could see someone busting a screen because if I did see, they would have been gone.  I did go through 5 screen techs in the last 10 months and still no real solution has been found yet they aren't busting as many.  But I've found it really hard to fire someone when I can't find actual proof that they are the ones responsible for busting the screens.  I have a slight idea of who did those two screens above and that's my problem, a slight idea.  I'm not going to get rid of one of my guys on a hunch, and although my crew isn't perfect, this is my biggest complaint and it's a big one because I agree with most of you that it's blatant destruction of company property, or another way to look at it like Sam said, theft.