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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
February 2021 #13259 Page #17
Ink Jet Printing — An Absolute Necessity for Every Panel Shop Cullen Ellis, Spida Sales and Technical Manager
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eing in this industry for the last 16 years, I’ve been inside many panel fabrication shops. The one thing they all have in common is the requirement to accurately cut and mark wall components which are then put together as a complete frame. The original and most simple way to achieve this was, of course, with good ol’ plan, tape measure, and pencil, which is effective but time consuming and has the element of human error. When I started working with Mango Tech back in 2004, they were developing the computerized manual plate marking system which provided a faster and more accurate way of laying out plates and other components. Utilizing a drop-down stud stencil that the plates passed underneath, the pusher stopped at the appropriate stud or component locations for just enough time to allow the operator to scribe a mark using a pencil. This system, which is still very effective, provided a faster and accurate way to mark plates while removing the human errors. Fast forwarding 13 years and many installs, Mango Tech had toyed with the idea of ink jet marking but never put it into development. Spida also had a plate marking system very similar to Mango’s so, after the two companies were combined, the decision was made to start working on an ink jet marker. It took about 12 months to get the first working prototype, and I was fortunate to be visiting New Zealand when they were running the initial demonstrations. Seeing it in person, I was completely blown away. The speed and accuracy of this new system, even during its initial development, has been mind blowing. The first set of pieces I witnessed run through the printer were around 12’ long and it took less than 3 seconds to process with completely legible, accurate, and detailed information magically appearing on the lumber. After so many years of watching the manual plate marker stop and
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