Case Study
Manual printing press transforms hobby into high-wattage business
Across the pond in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one print shop has been putting Vastex’s manual press to good use. Read on to find out more.
I
t seems fitting that Hi Voltage Productions, Mike Ritchey’s aptly named printing business, occupies a former 465sq m electric power station. Everything about the print shop exudes energy, from colourful rock and roll artwork and memorabilia adorning the walls to a restored pinball machine from the 60s. But the main attraction in this eclectic warehouse is Mike’s collection of screen printing equipment. Mike began dabbling in T shirt printing, reading books on the topic and honing his craft with hand-me-down equipment from friends in the business. Initially, printing was just for fun – an outlet for his creative talents alongside his love for tinkering (he built his first press out of wooden boards attached to a work table) and building custom choppers and low riders. But as his customer base began to grow, he knew it was time to take his business to the next level.
Modular press answers call for higher output In addition to running an automatic press he purchased from a friend, Mike used an old six colour/ four station manual press from his days in San Francisco, before he relocated to Pennsylvania. Business was booming, but his outdated printing equipment couldn’t keep up with demand and began to falter. “I used to do four-dozen pieces, and suddenly we had requests for 1,200 of this and 1,500 of that. “I was running older presses that weren’t very well calibrated,
or expandable in any way. We’d be here until three in the morning, and there’d be a lot of swearing because one print would come out perfect and all of a sudden the registration would wander off, and the next print would be off an eighth of an inch,” he says. On the advice of a friend, Mike visited Vastex’s showroom in Allentown, where he purchased a six colour/ six station V2000HD manual press. “It was incredible,” he recalls. “We brought it back in a cargo van and set it up in 40 minutes.” With his new Vastex press up and running alongside his automatic press and his older manual press, he was able to meet last-minute job requests without pulling all-nighters. “Anything under 150 pieces we’ll run on the V2000HD because it’s so fast,” he says. “I can be set up and printing in 10 minutes, and almost finished with the job by the time the automatic’s set up.” Within a year, Mike upgraded the V2000HD to an eight colour/ eight station press. “I love the fact that the equipment grows with you and is truly upgradeable,” he says. “I switched the press out to an eight-by-eight in two hours, and it was easy.” Adding two more arms and pallets upped his output and allowed him to run multiple jobs simultaneously – both on the V2000HD itself, which runs two or three jobs simultaneously, as well as in conjunction with his other two screen printing presses. “With three presses, we are bouncing around from one to another,” he says. “It really helps production because I don’t have to wait for a press to be available to put the next job on.”
Spot-on registration renders reproducible results While Mike is impressed with the V2000HD’s structural soundness, the high point for him is the press’s registration. “It’s unbelievably quick to register, and the registration is impeccable,” he says. “I can register a simulated process in
| 18 | February 2016
Mike Ritchey fits a shirt onto sleeve pallet of his V2000HD eight-colour, eight-station press
eight minutes, which would take me an hour on the other presses, and the registration would wander.” The six-way leveling and off-contact knobs allow him to adjust
the print heads incrementally for repeatable accuracy. “We do a lot of art prints for bands, and they want crazy graphics. If we didn’t have perfect registration they would look terrible.”
Versatile dryers regulate temperature, boost profits Having upgraded his press, Mike soon realised that he needed a better dryer. “We had this awesome press, and we were really cranking out the work, but our 40-year-old dryer couldn’t keep up,” he says. Mike returned to Vastex and purchased an EconoRed II 30 infrared conveyor dryer with a 76 cm wide belt. The unit’s compact size makes it easy to wheel around the crowded warehouse floor. The EconoRed dryer has adjustable belt-to-heater height to accommodate bulky items like hoodies, and is equipped with an exhaust system that cools the outer cabinet while evacuating moisture and fumes. Typically, Mike cures 150 to 200 T shirts an hour on the EconoRed II 30 – although he has cured as many as 350 T shirts an hour. With the upswing in production, Mike still needed to turn up
the heat, so he bought a second Vastex dryer: The DB-30, a compact conveyor dryer with a 76cm belt that cures up to 130 pieces an hour. The second dryer paid for itself in a week and a half and has increased Mike’s productivity by 30%. “With two dryers I can run all three presses at the same time. That’s where the profits lie,” says Mike. Mike doesn’t plan to stop there. He hopes to replace his old
six colour/ four station manual press with a six colour/ six station V2000HD in the near future, bumping up production another 15 to 20%. “Any printer will tell you when your presses are spinning you’re making money. Vastex’s machines took me to the next level without breaking the bank,” says Mike.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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