More info on TPF & their new printing process.

[greatwichjohn]

I am still moving forward on my end with IPB (Illinois Pin Ball) on getting an agreement to make product (backglass with films or translites). Have a look at the latest post for more info on what technology is being used in Australia. It truely is cutting edge for printing technology & I wish them the best!

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pinball/browse_thread/thread/9fa1675ab38dfb8c?hl=en#

[markc]

looks fine from what i can see John
some of the repro backglasses I have seen here in OZ  will wash off with water ...
very poor they are

will you be back at expo next year ?

[greatwichjohn]

More than likely a return to Expo 2010. I hope Stern is still in business, since times are real brutal in the pinball market. He should of tried harder with Costco, & made a bunch of pins. Inventory a bunch of each title for sales, Gary really blew that opprotunity for the Holiday Season & sales to home owners. Still don't understand running 100 pins at a time, have the balls to inventory your own product. Its a totally different market from the old days where you ran a title once & moved on.

I haven't seen Wayne's product yet. Sounds like he has a good chunk of change in that new printer. Hopefully he has someone skilled to use it. Quality control can be a real bitch at times. My last bunch of color transperant films for Seawitch were defective film, had 4 so far & I wrecked a good one when I forgot to clean off the adhesive. The surface tension of film to glass is amazing. So hopefully the rest aren't bad. You can't see the defect (wrinkle in film, manufacturing defect until you install it).

Anyone have any idea what printer & brand Wayne is using. I take it that he more than likely got one for rolled materials. Not one that can print to wood like the color span 9840uv printer.

[markc]

hey John


yes I will be there 2010  thats for sure

Stern are very interesting to say the least , anything to keep going from what I see .
I understand what they are doing small runs of pins , only to order  , keep costs down and keeps stock holdings down .  It is a very tough market in the USA at the moment .
still I do hope they continue as we really need a company making machines as I just cant see anyone else making new models and keep doing it
one of here or there isn't manufacturing . when you do it for a living and 24/7  then it is . but then too everyone has to start somewhere .

stern have some interesting titles coming up and are working with many different people to try and make some more interesting titles , good on them for trying .
I / we will support Stern as much as we can , we have 33 LOTR le already and are about to order batman , 24 , csi , spiderman and .... .  prices here in Australia will only come DOWN as our dollar gets better and more people sell Stern NIB.  Normal Stern titles  will hopefully be around 7 - 7.5 K or less  ( bar limited editions ) , give me a few weeks to work the price out
we also plan to carry hundreds more stern parts , of course this will take time as we have years worth of work ahead with sorting all the IPB parts .


as for the printer I am unsure  .  maybe others here can say ?


mark

[Pinball Fixers]

I have heard through the grapevine that the printer being used does indeed only print to rolled material.

Pretty sure it is a Roland brand... but I may be wrong on that.

[shansta]

Well I asked him (when he first got it) to do some PZ cab art for me - no go as it won't do fluro's.

I can't see Wayne being any use to us - he is interested in making re-runs, not spare parts. (It's his coin - good luck to him)

[Greg]

its the latest roland so I think its a Roland 300 - 4 colour process +white and or a clear

Roland have a clip on youtube

[shansta]

And I don't imagine it (or consumables) would be cheap...

And the software...

[greatwichjohn]

Looks like an interesting Roland printer. Can do many different things.

[greatwichjohn]

Today I went to the silk screen shop & the shop manager said they won't do 4 color process to glass using the flat bed incase the 50k print head gets destroyed. They will do a high dot print to film & install. I will post the results when the 1 glass gets done.

My printer just got a new Epson 1200 dpi printer & a plotter cut to go next to it. I don't know the commercial model, since i just got a brief look. We will probably try the same art file & compare results. The process will be to apply films dry. The plotter can cut the windows for displays in all films.

[Retropin]

Hi John,

I looked at getting print directly onto glass here in Aus as customers feel that print onto clear film is somewhat inferior. I approached 2 companies and both quoted me in the range of $500 per sq Metre - they also insisted on supplying the glass sheet themselves. This would put the price on a digital repro printed BG in the range of $300 - $350 each - hardly viable!
 I also had the same reply as yourself - they would only do it as dot print which then gives the same result as a digital print to clear film. Difference here being though that i can afford to do double or triple print to clear film which gives a far greater depth to the finished product, not all washed out like  alot of printed glasses.
 Most printers are cutter also and if you know your machine owner well he would be more than willing to set up as cutter and printer and do a run for you... my guy will organise this if i do between 5 and 10 prints which is why i now do runs of 10 glasses at a time.. will send pics to your email if you like

[shansta]

Today I went to the silk screen shop & the shop manager said they won't do 4 color process to glass using the flat bed incase the 50k print head gets destroyed. They will do a high dot print to film & install. I will post the results when the 1 glass gets done.

How is it going to damage the printhead? By hitting the glass? What does he normally print on BTW?

[greatwichjohn]

Most printers are very reluctant to do anything out of their confort zone. Pinball stuff falls into that category. Can't believe the excuses but there are a number of print heads getting destroyed by operator error!

[slammer]

I find it funny that TPF claim there printer is state of the art.

The 300 is a 2 head 4 colour machine, quite good but hardley top shelf

I use the Roland XC540 for all the artwork and plastics which is chalk and cheese compared to what Wayne is using

It has 4 heads and is 12 colour with a printing width of over 1300mm  and will laminate at the same time.

The operator makes a huge difference as well, you really need a great graphic designer or your up the creek bigtime.

Cheers Angelo