Screen printing
Screen printing machine monitoring
Most of the lost time on a printing line is not breakdown. It is the changeover, the drying wait and the machine standing while somebody checks a shade.
Screen printing is one of the deployments we have already delivered, so this is not a capability claim. The value here is separating real running time from all the setup around it.
What printing units tell us
- Job change time is never measured, so nobody knows what a short-run job really costs.
- The machine looks busy all day and the output does not agree.
- Rejects from the first few pieces after a change are written off and forgotten.
- A machine waiting for ink or a squeegee change looks identical to a machine that is running.
- Second and third shift performance is a matter of opinion.
What we measure on a printing line
The same state model, with changeover kept separate from breakdown on purpose.
Running, stopped, idle and off
Per machine, per shift, recorded without anybody writing anything.
Setup and screen change time
Tracked as its own category, so a setup heavy job can be priced for the setup it consumes.
Stoppage reasons
No material, colour or shade issue, screen change, breakdown, quality hold, power. Your list, your words.
Production counts
Where the machine gives a countable cycle. We confirm this at survey rather than promising it in advance.
Operator hours
Attendance and machine assignment, so shift comparison is about hours worked and not about impressions.
How it is fitted
Everything mounts outside the machine and the machine keeps running even if our device fails.
Optocoupler signal tap
On lamp or contactor signals that already indicate machine state.
Current sensor
Clamped on the drive supply, which also gives power consumption per machine.
Proximity sensor
On a repeating stroke or carriage movement where cycle counting is needed.
What a rollout looks like
One line first, fitted in a normal gap, and two weeks of data before deciding on the rest. Fitting a machine takes about an hour and is done from outside, so printing does not have to be planned around us. We agree the reason code list with your supervisor before go live, because a list your operators did not help write is a list they will not use. If a clean count is not possible on a particular machine, we tell you at survey rather than after installation.
Screen printing machines are one of the deployments LiveMach has already delivered, alongside textile looms and mixed electrical and mechanical plants.
Start with one line
Tell us how many machines you run and what a typical job change looks like. We will show you what gets measured.
Related reading
Machine downtime tracking
Planned, semi planned and unplanned downtime, and why changeover deserves its own bucket.
OEE software
Setup losses are one of the six big losses. This page shows what they cost.
Textile and looms
Our largest deployment, 150 machines in a weaving plant.
The LiveMach sensor device
What the device reads, how it is isolated and how it is fitted outside the machine.