Screen Printers Open - A Forum for Screen Printing and Embroidery

Due not do !

so where is everything standing today? when does stuff come available?

Peter, I see their is the panelframe and the roller panel. I am looking into upgrading and would like to try them. What range of tension should I expect from each system?

Care Ta share? I know they went thru a transition and  thought maybe they would be more stable as a company.

Peter, I see their is the panelframe and the roller panel. I am looking into upgrading and would like to try them. What range of tension should I expect from each system?

Gerry:  Great questions on target mesh tensions, but without having personal experience with the new mesh insert panels I'd hate to quote you specific numbers.  My experience with the original launch of the Panel Frame system was that it was possible to achieve initial tensions in the 20N to +30N range dependant on the mesh count. 

The problem was that mesh that used in the original Panel Frames was being sourced from a Chinese manufacturer, that provided very inconsistent results. There were a number of of reports of the mesh insert panels popping during the initial installation, and/or quickly losing tension levels after just a couple of reclaims. This was particularly prevalent with the higher mesh counts of 280T and above.  It's my expectation, and something that has been backed up by Sefar that these problems have been overcome by utilizing Sefar mesh. 

With that said, my own personal position is that if you have the money to invest, and the skills to properly use them that the Newman Roller frame provides the best quality print results of any frame on the market, bar none.  I'm real interested to see the results people are getting with the Newman frames using the Sefar Mesh Panel Inserts. 

So where do the TRAX frames (aka Panel frames) fit in? I see them as a good intermediate solution between static stretch and glue frames that can provide the small to medium size print shop with decent mesh tensions and the flexibility to have a wide range of options available through the ability to mix and match different mesh count panels as required. I'll reach out to the guys at Sefar this week to see if they have any specific numbers on tension levels and if they do, I'll post the info here. 

 

Peter, I am not making an unfounded statement. I said "Personally, knowing what I know" meaning it is an opinion.

But I will tell you this. Sefar was already brought into the mix when Rex had the Panelframe line and while that did help things a bit it did not resolve the underlying problem caused by the company making the frames and putting it all together. I personally have many of the Sefar mesh panels for them and have had several that where trash and would not work right out of the box. Rex had a great idea and concept when he developed the panelframe system and as long as he was involved one could be assured that he would bend over backwards to resolve any issues even to the point of minor design changes. Now that Sefar has taken his design I have not seen that level of commitment to the end user. With all that in mind, to me it is a better value to just buy ready stretched static frames. You will get more life out of them and the tension will be more constant. If you just must have something like the Panelframe I would just bite the bullet and buy the EZ Frame system from Shur-Loc as it is much better and would be a better value in the long run at this point over the Green Screen TRAX Frame system.

OK Preston, thanks for the heads-up.  I absolutely support everyone's right to have an opinion and preference for one product over another.  I was just trying to understand if you had some additional knowledge to share that was beneficial to people considering these products. I do want to thank you for positing your first hand experience with these frames.

However in fairness I think that we should give the guys at Sefar a chance to show what they can do to improve the performance of the mesh panel inserts and the level of support that they are going to provide to users of the TRAX frame products, now that they are fully involved as the exclusive Master Distributor for the GreenScreen Trax product range.

I would love to be able to afford the ex frames
Maybe their conversion kit for static's will get me started cheaper. I just don't have the confidence to maintain rollers the way they should be that's why the ex frame by Shurloc and the and are interesting to me.