LYNKA Promotional Products
Coudray Graphic Technologies
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October 2000
Krakow, Poland
Dear Stretch Devices,
Pop! This sound, usually followed by an expletive, is familiar to any manager with retensionable screens. That pop can be heard at the other end of my shop and I know it blindfolded. It's the sound of money going down the drains - it's the sound of a highly valuable work hardened screen that just broke. There is nothing worse than a work hardened screen breaking anywhere in the shop. But it always especially annoyed me to have it happen during retensioning. No matter how talented the people in your Screen Department are, you break plenty of screens during the retensioning process. Same in my shop.
On top of this, no one wanted to retension screens. They tell you they're doing it, you see them doing it when you walk into the department from time to time, but when you ask the press operators, you learn the truth. Or you can just see it in their faces as they struggle to register and set up a job. You can also see it in the speed of the white screens during printing - they are much slower than normal. When you check it later, you see that the tension was way down. More money down the drain.
So we decided to "bite the bullet" and spend a lot of money on a Roller Master - what we hoped would be a big payoff for us. And it has been, even in our market where labor rates are even one quarter of those in the West. Here are the savings which we have already experienced in our first year of using the machine:
- We are 35% faster when it comes to actually tensioning and retensioning screens. But don't just look at the specific savings in labor for retensioning, look at all the other screens your people are able to make because of this saved time.
- We never break screens during retensioning any more. We used to break 5 screens a month or more from over-tensioning; that's worth maybe $75+ dollars per screen.
- There is a dramatic savings in the precision which you have now with your tensioned screens. Again, no matter how talented your people are in the department, building a screen and retensioning it requires precision or the screen is useless. The Roller Master makes sure you have a precisely and accurately tensioned screen. You don't see these savings until later when you run into moired screens or problems on press during set up all because the mesh was applied a little off and the tension just isn't uniform all over the screen.
- Since the machine is easy to use and it's actually fun to use, screens actually get tensioned on a regular basis. Properly tensioned screens saves us thousands of dollars in press set up time.
- The press runs faster with retensioned screens. This alone makes the purchase of the Roller Master worth it.
It was a difficult decision for us to spend the money on a unit, even though we are a larger shop. My thought was, "I have people who are already tensioning screens so why buy an expensive piece of equipment that won't earn me money?" I suppose you could say that the Roller Master DOES earn me money; I'm glad we bought it.
Sincerely,
Anne E. Kalin
Vice President and Co-Owner
LYNKA Promotional Products
Krakow POLAND
Winner of 20+ awards: SGIA Gold Image, Images Magazine, Impressions Magazine Contests
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30-443 Krak6w, ul. Jozefa Marcika 4 |
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PPA BANK III 0/KRAKOW, nr 16001 039-2003-310l39-001 NIP; 677-006-76-12~ e-mail: akalin@Iynka.com.pl http://www.lynka.com.pl/ |
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October 17, 2000
Don Newman
Stretch Devices
3401 North I Street
Philadelphia, PA 19134
Dear Don:
I just wanted to give you an update on how things are progressing since we installed a Newman Roller Master stretching table. We purchased the table specifically to extend the benefits of the Newman Roller Frame and the associated technologies we are using that have been developed by Stretch Devices, Inc.
The Roller Master has improved the rapid stretching and retensioning of our frames. Our mesh tension is more uniform, and easier to maintain in this state. Since all of the rollers are turned simultaneously, tension is equal over the entire print area. This greatly reduces the amount of adjusting necessary to achieve the desired tension levels. We have also noticed fewer corner blowouts that result from over tightening one roller.
Our business is critical color reproduction. Uniform tension means less halftone moire', consistent ink deposit, less color drift, and maximum ink economy. Jobs come up to color faster. This is especially important to us as we often have to match jobs exactly as they have been done in the past. Even mesh tension is the key to accomplishing this.
In today's labor market, it is hard to find competent workers that can be trained to master technical operations necessary to do excellent work. The Roller Master Table solves that challenge. Anyone can be quickly and easily trained to use this product. It does not require a high level of physical ability, strength or technical skill.
We continue improving the efficiency of our printing process using the Newman Roller Master, assuring that critical mesh tensions are always achieved. This one aspect more than cost justifies this piece of equipment.
Thank you again for engineering another huge improvement to the process.
Best regards,
Mark A. Coudray
President
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