Thanks for posting the info Pat,

Do you get as nice and even a coating hand-feeding as with a percisely timed automatic feeder? What happens to the excess coating where a delay occurs between sheets? On the manual feeder, what exactly is the infeed/pickup like -- is there a good photo of the infeed area of the manual feed machine?

13k for the optional feeder adds over 1/3 to the nice price of your entry-level UV coater; even though I know you've said a person can hand feed 2000 an hour, it's a pretty undesirable tedius job and I don't see myself wanting to do it... but I suppose a young person might not mind doing this and 13k would pay a lot of hours so a person might actually be cheaper than the feeder for low volumes... Of course the feeder is available 24/7/365 and doesn't get carpal tunnel...

Jeff:

The feeder has little to do with the quality of the coating, that is all achieved within the coating tower itself. Our machine just happens to be built on a better platform that the other roller coaters in the market. Once the sheet enters the the tower, it is picked up with grippers and firmly held in place as it coats. You can expect as good or better coating as compared to any other roller coater. I will send you a photo of the unit on your direct email so that you can see the feeder. The value in our automated systems is that they are blanket coaters using a unique anilox cylinder. While our price of $59,000 for the 18" x 25" fully automated model is the best value in the industry, it is overkill for your project.

Actually the price of the feeder is considerally less than competition, with the volume you are doing, hand fed is a better option. You could not economically justify any manufacturers' feeder; for your application, it would just be a convenience. If you look at your overall payback, you have to decide what the value of the purchase is worth. Based on what we discussed, it appears the ability to have control over your job times is more important than the cost, whatever that may be. For example, if you are doing 3000 sheets per month, I would estimate that you are paying at least $300 to $400 per month. If you bring it in house, your operating costs {excluding machine costs would be less than $30 to $40 per month. No matter how you slice it, this cannot be a financial decision.

<url removed by request of original poster>

Anyone familiar with Dorn? http://www.dornspe.com/E_DMC_A.html

Skip:

The word on the street is that they are not marketing coating equipment any longer since they were bought out by a screen company.

We can offer a better solution that does not have "orange peel" tendencies. Please go to <url removed by request of original poster>

Another gloss coating option:
http://www.equicoat.com/uv.html

And Kompac now has the Kwik Finish:
http://www.kompactech.com/Kompac%20Kwik%20Finish.htm
http://www.kompactech.com/Kompac%20Kwik%20Finish.htm

Glenn:

The Kompac is a clone of the K2 machine. Good for low volume but weak on heavy volume work {50,000 per week or more sheets}

Glenn
Why do you say this?

I didn't say that.

Sorry - some posts had to be removed from this thread. Some of the posts above by "guest-45" above do contain some interesting information so they remain, but "guest-45" was involved with a competitive UV coating machine manufacturer that apparently ceased operation before they really got going (not one that is mentioned in this thread currently) so take statements such as that with a grain of salt.