Re: Which press and why
Thank you all for the comments. If you have read my previous posts there aren’t a lot of options. We must buy one of the following presses:
Hamada 234A
Ryobi 3302
Or the QM46
Must be brand new. Sending the jobs out aren’t an option and feel that if we can gang run 2 jobs that are 500-1,000 sheet jobs then we are ahead of the game.
After meeting with all three salespeople (Hamada, Ryobi, Heidelberg) I really find that the Hamada 234A is the way to go. While the Ryobi 3302 may have the reputation and a good 15 years of being on the market before Hamada with their 2 up portrait, the differences between the Hamada and Ryobi are significant. The Heidelberg QM46 although being known for durability and well, everything that Heidelberg stands for is a great machine, but isn’t designed to run full color all day long. Can it do it? Sure, if you’re a good juggler I suppose. But lets not stray from common sense, you simply cannot run full color work on 1 blanket, there is a reason why no other press manufacture markets their common blanket 2 color to run process work. Registration board is key for process; I don't think anyone can argue that – but welcome that discussion.
So then, why the 243A and not the 3302 you ask? A few reasons, the 3302 although being first on the market back in the early 80's and having made a reputation and properly the most popular true 2 color haven’t made many changes since then. Hamada took the best of the 3302 and the best of Hamada's larger presses and combined the two. With Hamada’s helical cut gears a hair up or down or even left to right is not going to be an issue. Their separate pumps for the air blow and suction allow for a better feed of any stock, into the registration board, and the fact that once the paper does get there it is pushed it over and holds it for a clip of a second before it being taken by the SOLID transfer case.
The Ink train on the 234A I feel is superior to the 3302 because of the fact the 2nd form is on the back half and apart from the first form. Ghosting isn’t much of an issue on any newer press now a days, but this ink train should alleviate that problem all together.
The water options on the 3302 are limited to the dealer, and the fact that Ryobi pushes their own system over the Kompac and Crestline, frankly has me concerned. Aren’t Kompac and Crestline in the business and know perhaps a little more than one who was only in the business of casting and then decided to make presses, along with power tools I might add? Their water system could be just a nice if not better than the Kompac, but why would Ryobi focus their attention to that over working on the on-the-fly movements that it doesn’t currently have?
The fact that I can toss out Hamada’s standard water option, and have the Kompac or Crestline installed by Hamada installed is a plus. Dealer tolerances for perfection could vary, and the fact that Hamada is taking on that installation is great.
Delivery area:
Does anyone have one of these over priced blow driers that are offered on the 3302 over an IR dryer? I always feel that if it’s good on a 40'' press than lets find a way of putting it on the smaller presses. And what 40'' press has a hot air instead of the IR setup? I can understand the thought behind putting something so hot behind a water system and then fighting the fact that things are getting too hot. But Ryobi has sold them for years with the IR Dryer and so do many other press manufacture. If this is the way to go what happens when you run a press with or without a drier and the press warm up because it’s been moving for 5 hours straight? Water systems should know how to handle this problem, and feel that they have done a great job in doing so.
Thoughts?
