ImagesMagUK_February_2021

www.images-magazine.com 50 images FEBRUARY 2021 SCREEN PRINTING Telling it like it is: screen printing presses Two decorators tell us how their screen printing presses are working out for them Basic Thinking: Roq Oval Hybrid from I-Sub Kieran Hickey, owner Tell us a bit about your business We’re predominantly a garment manufacturer, we design and develop garments and then manufacture them in our own factory in Egypt. We have a printing operation as well – we do it all in-house. We decided in July last year to set up a plant in our UK warehouse. I believe there is a gap to service the internet explosion with lots of internet companies wanting to do smaller runs of production. The options are DTG, which is expensive, or they go to a screen printer and ask them to print 300 or 500 pieces, because that’s typically the number that these internet retailers want. It’s quite challenging when you’ve got lots of colours and designs that you need because to colour print 300 pieces, it’s very expensive. So the hybrid option was an in-between scenario, in between DTG and screen printing, because it’s a combination of both. Why did you choose the Roq? We looked at MHM, because in Egypt, we have MHM machines and Roq machines. And I went with the Roq because I like the simplicity of it. Also, they’re on the same timeframe as us and the service is very, very good. The machine is a large-format hybrid machine, which had only been introduced to the world in January or February [2020]. When I originally went to buy it, it had a smaller digital head compared to the large digital head. The one we’ve got now is 38cm by 70cm, whereas the one before, from memory, was 50cm by 24cm. In order to do wider than 24cm, you’d have to print and then the whole head would move and transfer over to do the other half, whereas this machine can do it in one go. That was the attraction as well. How is it working out so far? In the main, very good. We’ve had some teething problems with it, getting to learn it, little pipes coming loose, and bits and pieces. The service and the customer follow-up are good. If we ever get a problem, we just make a call and there’s always somebody there to take on anything I need doing. Was it easy to pick up how to use it? Reasonably, yes. It’s challenging. You’ve got to make sure you follow the processes. It’s a different way of thinking compared to screen print, because ultimately, to put it in simple terms, you print the white base and then you put a glue on top of it, and then you print the digital on top of that. It is very impressive to see it. Is there anything you’d like to see in an upgrade or don’t like about it? Fluorescent colours [on the digital head] would be good. Because it’s CMYK RG there’s – I can’t remember the exact number – it’s 3 million colours, I think, but if you want to do fluorescent then you do spot colour on it, which we can do with the screen print. Because it’s a combination of DTG and screen, we can add in spot colours, we’ve got a foiling head, flock... How many can it print an hour on a normal run? It depends on the size of the image. Smaller, faster; larger, slower. But we’ve had 400 an hour, that’s the maximum, and the lowest is probably about 310 an hour. I’d say 350 or 360 is where it sits on average. Do you have any other presses in the UK operation? The Roq Oval Hybrid is a 26-station oval. We run a hybrid line down one side of the oval, and on the other side of the oval, we run screen printing. We also have a Roq Now, a 10-station machine, which is very good, that just runs and runs. So effectively we have three machines. What’s your advice to others thinking of buying a hybrid press? It’s more expensive to print, so you need the market for it. If you’re looking for mass volume, it’s not necessarily the way to go because screen printing’s always cheaper. You’ve got to have, I wouldn’t say patience, but it’s not as simple as a screen printing machine, and technically, it needs more skills to run it. www.basicprints.co.uk Kieran Hickey from Basic Thinking with the Roq Oval Hybrid