5000 6 x 10 sheets an hour, anyone?

[Gino]

Rycc.......

I'll try this again. With all due respect, if you had one of these.... how would you get over 3,400 4'x 8' sheets of Cor-X fed into this machine, let alone where will you stack the over 3,400 sheets when finished in all under 1 hour. Physically, how is either end of loading or unloading all of that possible ?? I'm sure I'm thinking small-minded here, but I can't figure out where I'm gonna get all these monkeys to handle over 3,400 sheets an hour... that's over 27,500 a day. That is train car loads.... a day !! How and where can you handle this much let alone transport it in and then handle 27,500 pieces a day, five days a week ?? How big must a shop be in order to do this ??

 

[RycckG]

That part is actually easy... SOP in packaging. Here is a link to a video of a flexo printer that uses the exact same feed mechanism. Again, this is a flexo printer, not digital, but it shows how material handling is achieved very easily.

http://www.sunautomation.com/video_play.php?id=5


And here is a video of a flexo 5 color printer, but you will see the feeding device and the stacking device. The ColorStream uses identical feeder and stacker, but instead of flexo units, digital...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtNXVxIXt2A&feature=related

 

[weaselboogie]

How big must a shop be in order to do this ??

It looks like it must be a FACTORY

 

[Gino]

That die cutter is bigger than most peoples' shops. I'd set up a wet bar inside and just camp out for a few hours and listen to money being made..... figuratively.

I still yet to see a digitally printed sign, but since Rick said he has samples.... there just might be something to this. It just doesn't look like its gonna be happening to the sign industry on any level of your normal shop types. You'll need an acre or two for equipment and then a few more acres just to store inventory and finished work with a train dock at your back door. Trucks couldn't bring that stuff in fast enough to keep it moving at the speeds you're talking all day long.... all week long.... year in /year out.

Nope, it might exist.... but not on anyone's level here.... that's for sure.

 

[RycckG]

Well its nice to hear you say it MIGHT exist.

I believe you are located in Reading PA... The printer will be installed in York PA, and I will open the door for you to see it when it is ready in late spring or summer 2011. The corrugated packaging industry currently prints over 500 million sqft a day in the US alone. Interstate Container in Reading has about 8 of those printer/die cutters alone. My primary product is corrugated, but this printer will handle any rigid material

It really does exist...

 

[mark galoob]

since we are just talkiing smack at this point and im bored, ill give em one more to think on...

if this thing does print that fast, and of course im not saying yea or nay on this at all...but if if does print that fast, i have yet to see any of my corragute boxes have more than a few inches of print on them at all. so my next question would be how fast does it print the whole sheet, w/ full coverage...

mark galoob

 

[RycckG]

500 linear foot per minute at 45" wide... that's 8 ft per second... full coverage or 10% coverage, nothing changes.

 

[jwright350]

that baby would be a sweet inline solution to a custom box factory since lots of them still send out the e-flute to have the printed outer sheet mounted on them.

 

[DoubleDown]

The reality is that things will always get faster....always. The M-Press that was just installed at my buddy's shop in So Cal is staggering, 14,000 sqft an hour. Single pass, all inline, coaters, spot, etc. The technology is easily available but it will take time like we all know to perfect it. Until then, everyone will keep buying more expensive machines and lowering their prices until this entire industry is like the paper market where it's penny's of profit we are vying for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WZQgKVKLzk&feature=youtu.be

 

[UFB Fabrication]

While its cool to think possible its not remotely practical for the SIGN industry. We looked at a big job a month ago that was only 1200 4x8 sheets of alum and plastic. When speaking direct to mfg. and mills they all said they would have a long lead time. Besides I doubt that enough work exists in the entire country for that volume of work. Much less bother with a piss ass little job of a thousand or so at a time. I would also assume that the combined sales of all the sign shops in the country could pay for the ink and overhead just to feed that monster.

Cool technology though,

 

[ddarlak]

it's late spring or early summer 2011...

gino, have you got the invite?

 

[Gino]

I was just wondering the same thing...............

 

[RycckG]

Hello again... Things are alive and well. Install was delayed but is scheduled for July 5. Not only will I send and invite when we are running, but we are currently hiring. (please see Help Wanted section for the job description) I have upgraded my status as a Merchant Member. The new company name is ColorStream and you should be able to find several industry articles on the installation.

Rycck

 

[artbot]

@gino

i personally know the foreman of the shop that does all of walmart's graphics (my girlfriend's dad)...done on some version of the scitex turbjet. they do all the outdoor signs, trucks, everything.

what's so wrong about print speed/production being an after thought? we aren't going to print slowly and expensively forever. technology is what it is. and it will make some a ton of money and put many out of business. the thing to do is to just be on the right side of that issue.

 

[RycckG]

Walmart, in store stuff, is all corrugated. That's our substrate. We will be a supplier to the industry. Our primary product is packaging. If one of you guys want to go after POP, we would love to supply corrugated or any other paper based substrate over 1/8" thick PM me and I can go into more depth and/or supply samples and pricing. Sounds like you have a great conx.

Rycck

 

[Stan B]

Rycck that confuses me is what are you doing here? Even if all signs101 users drop all their business on you it will keep your machine printing ...20 minutes? and your prepress/rip/logistics/packaging busy for days (for the same 20 minutes printing or so). I'm not being mean just really I don't get it how this is a good use of your time (average wholesale order here must be around $250 right?)

 

[HulkSmash]

hope your RIP machine is the size of africa.

 

[andy]

@gino

i personally know the foreman of the shop that does all of walmart's graphics (my girlfriend's dad)...done on some version of the scitex turbjet. they do all the outdoor signs, trucks, everything.

what's so wrong about print speed/production being an after thought? we aren't going to print slowly and expensively forever. technology is what it is. and it will make some a ton of money and put many out of business. the thing to do is to just be on the right side of that issue.

No one will "make" a ton of money.

What will happen is that the large volume users who buy from companies within the independent sign industry will "save" money by buying their own print machines and then running everything in-house.

As you've pointed out Walmart is effectively dead as far as the independent sign trade is concerned... you won't get any work from Walmart because they've got a complete in-house setup.

The fact is mega customers with £'s to spend on huge volumes of print are a dying breed. These new high speed, low per copy cost machines are great... if you're a supermarket chain. If you're an independent sign & display company they're an expensive albatross around your neck.

 

[RycckG]

Stan, I have been a member for 2 years and have found the info available here priceless. Three years ago when we started printing digital with our Gandi, I found lots of helpful info, and still do. I shared the development of this printer with the forum as it has developed only because it is fun to talk about. Corrugated packaging is a huge industry, and that is our primary market. We currently work with dozens of box plants that produce 1MM sqft of high graphics packaging every day.

I will offer printed material and cutting services to the POP and sign industry for anyone who wants to consider using this new technology, but our primary customer is packaging.

 

[artbot]

...it's almost a historic conversation... there was a day that you couldn't just go get plywood and beams at the local hardware store.

... there was a day that i paid a company a grand a month to have part cut on a $1,000,000 cnc machine. i later bought a used shopbot for $4k and saw that in the next few years the guy with the massive cnc went out of business. did i put him out of business? no. he did. he discussed with me his concerns that more and more shops were getting cnc equipment... there is a long term business trajectory that we all have to live with. over the next decade. we need to be concerned about this country being belly up in a decade. so do we have an asian market strategy? getting in a business model that works is smart. but knowing that it's demise will occur and planning five to ten years ahead of time for your next business model is the way to go. we all know that there will be a solvent printer in every garage in the next 10 years. will the industry exist as we know it? of course it won't. no industry every will. hell, stupid ol' me will be in the market for a $15,000 used uv flatbed in the next five years and i will plop it somewhere on my property.

also, walmart doesn't do in-house printing. they use mountain graphics in houston. that is a well oiled sign cranking factory. the pace and efficiency is insane. walmart is smart enough to recognize that some of this stuff is better off out sourced.