Flash cure cost savings

FastFlash

We offer different styles of flash cure units for manual printing and athletic number printing.  FastFlash™ and SplitFlash™ are historically reliable and effective at their function.  The QuartzAir™ flashes for both manual presses and QuartzAir SplitFlash for athletic numbering systems have a higher initial investment, function just as well but offer long term cost savings that are often overlooked.

The less expensive version is designed with calrod™ style heaters.  The

The cost savings on a quartz style flash system comes in the cycle count and speed.  Due to the ability to reduce the heat between print cycles, the power consumption reduces and so do power costs.  One of the major benefits of printing with a quartz flash is that the flash cure time for each garment it a constant.  The flash cycles on when a garment activates a sensor and the the flash cycles to a lower temperature after a preset amount of time.  When the flash is at a lower temperature, its pose consumption is at a fraction of full.

This power consumption cycle differs from the FastFlash style because calrod heaters stay on at full capacity for the entire shift without any reduction for down time.  This is a 100% full current load for 8 hours.

So enough of the tech talk.  What does this mean for the monthly bill?

A customer recently sent us an email about their experience.

"So I have had the Quartz Air flash for about 5 months now and I wanted to give you some more info you could share down the road... 

I moved over from the FF2020 and it might just be due to the way that I approach printing - but when I am comparing print days BEFORE the Quartz Air and now - the savings is pretty substantial, or a lot more than I had thought. 

On an average print day I am using about $5 less electricity. 

Doesn't sound like a ton, but $5 for a 5 day work week is $1,300 a year. That's pretty substantial if you ask me. Not to mention the shop being much cooler and not having to wait for the flash to heat up etc. 

Now I know everyone's experience may vary but even just saving $500 per year would more than pay for the unit against a traditional IR panel flash over 5 years. 

I love this thing. Thanks for making it!"

 As for the Numberprinter QuartzAir SplitFlash we have more definite cost analysis.

Quartz Flash High Power	9600	watts
Quartz Flash Idle Power (50%)	6400	watts
Time at idle power (per minute):	50	seconds
Time at full power (per minute):	10	seconds
Average Quartz Flash Power	6933.33	watts
Average Conventional Split Flash Power:	13200	watts
Average Power Savings of Quartz Flash Over Conventional Flash:	6266.67	watts
Power usage per 9-hour day:	56.40	KWh
Electricity cost per KWh:	0.10	$/KWh
Cost Savings per 9-hour day:	$5.71	/day
Cost of purchasing Quartz Flash:	$3,000.00	unit
Number of days to recoup purchase price:	525.01	days
Number of 365-day years to recoup purchase price:	1.44	years

Everyone has a budget to purchase equipment. 

The choice of conventional flash curing equipment is a good one.  The final product produced will be high quality and the cost of running the equipment is well within a monthly cost structure.  However, when looking long term, consider quartz flashes for both the timer function on the heat and for the lower energy consumption.  A higher quality garment with a lower power bill.  Who wouldn't want that?