Print Stroke Discussion

I have been thinking about what Robert says about comparing the two presses. I decided to start a little thread on comparing the two since I run one. One of the things I get frustrated the most with the Printex is its inability to print 20" as advertised. This made me think why is it the Sportsman that Brandt has can print 22"? Not to mention the footprint on the same press six color is actually less than the hurricane I have. So lets compare the two and see what is different.

What is one thing that is extremely important to all printers buying an auto? That is print area. The more the better for 90% of us. With that thinking a manufacturer should always have it in their mind to engineer their product as efficiently as possible to utilize all space available.

In the first picture below the red arrow is pointing at a steel plate jutting out from the front of the print carriage. this plate becomes the mechanical stop for the carriage, it can not travel any further once it hits that plate. Now on the Sportsman there is nothing in front on the carriage so their carriage can travel right up to the choppers, on the Printex it stops almost two inches before the choppers. I could conservatively cut one inch off that plate and gain all the travel. (note the sportsman pic is last but hard to see)

In this picture you see a shiny plate that the air hoses are mounted to. This becomes the rear mechanical stop. Now on the Sportsman there is nothing behind the choppers. I would remount the air lines to the middle farther in and pick up an easy inch or more.

Now in this picture you see the steel plate that the rear hanger hangs from. You should notice it is tee shaped. The part of the plate with the hanger bolts sticks out several inches from the center t part. On the sportsman it is just one long plate with everything mounted off of it. That rear hanger plate is the rear mechanical stop the farther out it juts the less travel for the carriage. If that plate was fabricated so everything was on one plane you would pick up a good two inches.

I added some extra pics of the sportsman someone was gracious enough to provide me. All you have to do is look in front and behind the print carriage and see how it is different. Another thing I know now is the M&R machine has the front drive wheel for the belt well behind the front hanger unlike on the Printex the drive wheel extends out in front of the hanger hence losing more travel distance.

In conclusion what I see is this, Printex purports easier to work on and I agree in some elements. What is not taken into account is that M&R utilized every inch of space available by burying certain things, a bit harder to access but you get more print stroke.

Hopefully this was educational and the thread survives. I will cross post it as well on some other sites.