I am here at P and P LIVE

[arthur.daley]

I must admit that from an engineering point of view and for its sheer simplicity, a conveyor oven and wraps makes absolute sense to me. But if you wanted to impress visitors being shown round your 'print works' it does look a whole lot more sexy.

I was talking to a bod on a stand - company from Peterborough whose name escapes me, he was trying to sell mug printing services to me and he said they had purchased one of these machines. He said they had no complaints about the machine at all - but then he would say that wouldn't he! Be interesting to know if there are any issues with leaving the paper on the mug while you wait for the machine to pick it up and put it in the exit chute and wait for it to be spat out so you can strip it.

Be interesting to see how badly things go awry when you have a few badly wrapped mugs or some dodgy heat tape that lets go of the transfer as it is being loaded into one of the clamps. Not that any of us have ever had such a thing happen of course.

[bubbleimages]

Xpres staff at the show said they value each blanket at just 500 presses. But tests they did went up to 4000.

I personally do not understand that machine as I think it has got its market wrong...

If you were in the market of needing to print 250 mugs an hour then it would be a fair guess that an oven would be a far superior way of printing, I would also take a stab that it would be far cheaper as the running costs on this machine would be huge. Plus the fact that, at the rate this prints, the blankets would need replacing near on every two weeks.

It would need a minimum of two people (possibly three for 250 an hour) just says to me that the machine simply does not add up.

Something sub 10 grand, fully automated at 80 (ish) an hour might be of interest I suppose. But blankets would have to have come ALONG way for me to switch back.

[socialgiraffe]

Xpres staff at the show said they value each blanket at just 500 presses. But tests they did went up to 4000.

Hmmmmm

Would be interested to see what image they used and am also very surprised that they used 4000 mugs for testing...

That aside, if 500 is the value that would mean replacing the blankets every week which will not be cheap as I doubt any old blanket will work and secondly means downtime.

Granted, at £1:30 a mug (which is what I have seen on trade) you could pull £5500 a week less labour and running costs (call that £2000 max) meaning clear profit of around £3-3.5k a week.

But, the volume you need to push those sort of numbers is quite staggering and with very established large market “players” already out there it would be a very tough but to crack.

Like I say, I think the machine is confused on who it’s target audience is personally.


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[mr-gobby]

Ricky at Xpres made me chuckle, said a chap was at one of those demo's and at the end, turned to the guy next to him and said, 'well you'd need to sell a lot of mugs to run one' to which the guy said 'Yes I guess so,,,,,' unknown the the chap, that guy ran Moon Pig.

[pw66]

Surely if you have to wrap and pre load the mugs by hand you might as well just bung them into the press by hand? Would pre heating from the bottom up cause the product to start sublimating unevenly from the bottom?

Looks like the Health and Safety Executive will have a field day with that machine.

[Ricky@Xpres]

Hello

Just to be clear the elements are warranted for 500 prints, but the feedback from customers that have been using the machine for a while has been between 3000 and 4000 prints from each element.

Ricky
Xpres

Hmmmmm

Would be interested to see what image they used and am also very surprised that they used 4000 mugs for testing...

That aside, if 500 is the value that would mean replacing the blankets every week which will not be cheap as I doubt any old blanket will work and secondly means downtime.

Granted, at £1:30 a mug (which is what I have seen on trade) you could pull £5500 a week less labour and running costs (call that £2000 max) meaning clear profit of around £3-3.5k a week.

But, the volume you need to push those sort of numbers is quite staggering and with very established large market “players” already out there it would be a very tough but to crack.

Like I say, I think the machine is confused on who it’s target audience is personally.


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[socialgiraffe]

Hello

Just to be clear the elements are warranted for 500 prints, but the feedback from customers that have been using the machine for a while has been between 3000 and 4000 prints from each element.

Ricky
Xpres

Cheers for clarifying Ricky.

One thing to add is that personally I hope the machine sells really really well as that would encourage other manufacturers and different models to be introduced.

Looks like the Health and Safety Executive will have a field day with that machine.

I genuinely do not see that being an issue for a few reasons, the most important being that I can all but guarantee Xpres will not sell anything that does not meet guidelines set out by the H&S Executive, furthermore I would go as far as saying that Xpres would go above and beyond any requirement. So if that is what was holding you back you can proceed immediately

[arthur.daley]

Cheers for clarifying Ricky.

I genuinely do not see that being an issue for a few reasons, the most important being that I can all but guarantee Xpres will not sell anything that does not meet guidelines set out by the H&S Executive, furthermore I would go as far as saying that Xpres would go above and beyond any requirement. So if that is what was holding you back you can proceed immediately

problem is - its nigh impossible to make anything foolproof when fools tend to be (or rather think) that are being resourceful when they find a way of bypassing safety systems. You wouldn't believe some of the things I have seen in 10 years as a University Departmental Safety Officer. The capacity for educated people to do spectacularly stupid things knows no bounds!

[pw66]

I genuinely do not see that being an issue for a few reasons, the most important being that I can all but guarantee Xpres will not sell anything that does not meet guidelines set out by the H&S Executive, furthermore I would go as far as saying that Xpres would go above and beyond any requirement. So if that is what was holding you back you can proceed immediately

Not suggesting any lack of diligence on behalf of xpres or the manufacturer.
I am sure that the machine is very well made, to all the relevant requirements, but it doesn't matter to the HSE how well the machine is made when it leaves the factory or the xpres warehouse.
They are interested in the operational procedures within the place of use. They can walk into any workplace at any time and look at any piece of equipment, how it is being used, byu whom, training, safety etc. None of that is the responsibility of xpres or schultz, it is down to the firm using the equipment.

That machine isn't a portable appliance, it is a piece of 'plant'. It will be subject to a whole raft of legislation within the workplace. With 15 heating elements not least amongst those will be air extraction and air quality.

My neighbour has just had over £3k of fines ( sorry 'fees for intervention') from the HSE because his compressor hadn't been presure tested - an item of machinery with 15 heating elements, moving parts etc is going to be subject to some scrutiny regardless of how it is made.