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Attention to detail - detailed attention by Robin George
Poor service support from commercial suppliers business to business, has a much more dramatic effect, fast moving companies can ill afford to receive poor levels of service from their commercial partners. Poor service generates a significant amount of wasted time within any company, from time spent chasing up incorrectly supplied or damaged goods to the amount of time taken by accounting departments to issue and re-issue invoices or credit notes, as we all know time is money.
Attention to detail is crucial, one company with an obsessional approach to this is Vision Supplies Ltd, the Yorkshire based supplier of machinery and consumables to the printing industry. This obsession is borne from a business strategy to introduce and develop the latest technologies to its client base.
Many suppliers rest on their laurels and expect their clients to remain loyal regardless of any lack of development in either their company or products, an area where Vision Supplies differs significantly.
Colin Hale, Operations Director explains, "it's over 7 years since Vision was formed, we saw an opportunity in the market to introduce some innovative printing products and solutions, at the time many of the consumables being supplied to the industry were formulations going back many years, there seemed to be a considerable lack of development in many of these products, and very little new innovation in machinery that would help businesses become more efficient or profitable, two areas we initially targeted were screen cleaning and multi-substrate process ink technologies."
Chim 92 - Leading Screen Cleaning Technologies
Chim 92 the Lyon based manufacturer of screen cleaning machinery and chemical solutions developed a range of screen cleaning chemicals that has changed the way modern screen printing companies reclaim their screens.
Traditional manual methods of reclamation have relied upon several applications of oil based solvents, conventional emulsion strippers and caustic anti-stain products which are followed by degreasing agents and copious amounts of water rinsing in between. This laborious process has been championed by several suppliers to the screen printing industry for many, many years, this outdated process is no longer required.
Chim 92 - Manual Application
Chim 92 revolutionised the screen cleaning process by formulating chemical solutions free of oil based solvents, these solutions rely heavily on surfactant based technologies which can reduce the average screen cleaning time per frame by 50%, only one application of chemical is made to the screen to remove the ink, stencil and to degrease the mesh following which the frame may need to be anti-stained with one of Chim 92's unique anti-stain products, the total application of chemicals to the screen's surface is two rather than four. The associated water rinsing is reduced by approximately 50%, as is frame handling and turning, and the working environment is improved significantly, as their products are low odour and their concentrated formulas are diluted with water when used manually.
Chris Mabbott - Technical Sales for Vision is one of the team responsible for introducing and demonstrating the products to Vision's ever increasing client base, Chris says "initially many of our new client's reactions are almost disbelieving of our product's performance, it's easy to read from a glossy brochure or to use baffling ‘techy speak' the reality is that the only way to prove just how good Chim 92's range of products are is by demonstrating them in a true production environment."
Chris continues, "it's the production operators that really appreciate how efficient these products are, the limited number of chemical applications speeds up what has traditionally been a very labour intensive process, and our results are second to none."
Chim 92 - Automatic Machines
Vision's obsession with detail and Chim 92's innovative approach has helped both companies design and develop a range of screen cleaning machines with industry leading benefits and performance guarantees. Many of the UK installations have been documented in this magazine.
The benefits of the machinery and the understanding of its performance take a little time to explain, but to summarise.
Perhaps it's the - performance guarantee - introduced by Vision, a cast iron guarantee of the ongoing performance of the equipment, Vision offer a ‘money back' installation guarantee should the equipment not produce the levels of in-line cleaning and anti-staining agreed between itself and its clients. Performance levels vary depending on the model type, more than 95% is achievable, that means over 95% of all frames exiting the equipment will be clean enough to re-enter the production loop without any further treatment.
Perhaps it's the - mechanical warranty - on the equipment for up to 7 years from the date of installation, unheard of before on screen cleaning machinery (available with certain common sense conditions).
Perhaps it's the - lower environmental impact - when compared to many oil based solvent machines on the market, Chim 92's chemical products are VOC free and have extremely low consumption when used within their machine. They are supplied in 1,000 ltr containers reducing packaging waste and unnecessary transport. The waste water discharged from the machines typically has COD readings below 2,000 mg/ltr.
Perhaps it's the - lower cost in use - significant savings in labour are achieved as are savings in the volume and number of chemicals used. Users also benefit from massive reductions in mesh stretching, due to the non aggressive anti-staining process.
Or perhaps it's the - ease of use - the Chim 92 system can fully automatically process up to nine large format frames per hour, automated loading and unloading of the frames is available as is automated product filling and emptying. Following processing the frames are dried in-line, this whole process requires very little operator intervention, and the results are outstanding.
The last word on Chim 92's machinery is probably best left to one of its clients. Les Thomas is the Managing Director of B & P Screenprint whose company purchased a machine from Vision in April '05, Les comments, "we had used a number of solvent based screen cleaning machines over the years none of which have consistently produced results anywhere close to those of the Chim 92 machine we purchased. Simply put Vision Supplies have delivered exactly what they said they would, in fact the machinery and chemistry has exceeded our expectations and the screen cleaning and anti-staining performance has been maintained at the same levels from the date of installation some 3 years ago, I could not recommend the machinery and chemical combination highly enough, we have made huge financial savings in the screen cleaning department by using the equipment and considerably reduced the effects of this process on the environment."
‘THINK' Ink Products
Vision Supplies wanted to be one of the first manufacturers to offer high performance multi-substrate process screen inks.
The company spent several years developing and refining its formulations to produce a range of new screen ink products with outstanding performance.
Vision's own ink brand ‘THINK' is now available in two ranges, Type 01 and Type 02. Vision carefully considered everything about the product from the unique colour coded labeling system for easy stock control to the impact of the products on the operators and environment using where possible the lowest impacting chemicals. Both ink types are HDDA and NVP free and use very little oil based solvent or water in their formulations.
‘THINK' - Type 01
This unique formula has excellent adhesion qualities on a very wide range of substrates. The ink is particularly suitable for paper and board derivatives with low ink build. These qualities extend further to PVC, styrene, polycarbonate, acrylic and banner grade PVC, a low odour and a press ready formula, 01 is suitable for a high percentage of day-to-day screen printing work.
‘THINK' - Type 02
‘THINK' Type 02 is the class leading, high performance ink product from Vision, extending further the adhesion range achieved by 01 to include polypropylenes and the latest multi use materials, with even lower build than 01 truly exceptional mileage is achieved, making the product one of the lowest cost in use high performance process inks available, press ready and with low odour 02 is a very user friendly ink to use.
It's A Vision Thing
Paul Waterton, Managing Director of Vision Supplies takes up the story, "it's one thing to formulate a strategy but another to implement it satisfactorily, our staff's dedication has helped our company grow year on year. I have said it many times ‘customer is King' a philosophy we will continue to obsess over. 2008 will see us introduce more consumable products and machinery. Chim 92's latest machine development will have a very important role in many of today's screen printing companies, currently in the final phase of testing we will introduce the machine to the UK market in the third quarter, this machine is unique and will clearly illustrate Chim 92's consistent development of its products!."
He continues "I am sure that many of our clients stay loyal due to our company's progressive nature and because of our obsessive attention to detail, it's a Vision Thing."
It is clear Vision are a highly focused company keen to develop their products and machinery, if like Vision more companies took the time and effort to look after their customers we might not have the call centre's situated in outer Siberia and perhaps those garages could throw away the calculators designed only to run up high bills, still I suppose we all have a choice in the partnerships we form!
For more information please contact
Vision Supplies Ltd,
E: e-mail custserv@visionsupplies.co.uk
T: 0113 200 8270
F: 0113 277 7282
