History
Like Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard of Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Steve Jobs
and Steve Wozniak
of Apple before him, Rich Hoffman began M&R in a garage.
M&R started out in 1985 with three employees. They were providing maintenance and repair for screen printers who were dissatisfied with the service provided by
the manufacturers of their screen printing equipment. Just one year later, M&R began manufacturing manual screen printing presses.
In the late 1980's, M&R built Challenger, its first automatic screen printing press, and Challenger quickly came to dominate the market. Graphic screen
printing presses followed in 1992. Eventually, M&R went on to become the world's largest manufacturer of screen printing machines, a position it holds to this
day.
M&R's dominant position in the industry enabled it to acquire competitors Elexon and Precision in 1995. In 1999, M&R acquired Amscomatic, a world-leader in
post-press screen printing equipment, and NuArc, the world's foremost maker of screen printing and lithographic prepress imaging equipment.
M&R Companies founder, Rich Hoffman, in 1985.
M&R was started as a service organization providing maintenance and repair of screen printing equipment.
The first manufacturing area in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
One of the early Challenger presses during assembly.
Our 200th Challenger . . .
Increased demand for the Challenger meant a new work space and more technicians and craftsmen to build our growing line of equipment.
Our 300th Challenger . . .
The 1000th Challenger is built!
The factory grew to meet demand, along with the staff - many of the people in this photo are still key employees at M&R.
The Glen Ellyn, Illinois factory after 25 years of expansion.
The original office spaces were still at the heart of the building, with new additions added on in the surrounding space in an effort to keep up with the manufacturing and administration growth over the years. When there was no more room for growth in the space we had, it was time to move to a new location.
M&R Companies in Medinah, Illinois.
In June of 2015, M&R moved to a new facility with more than 320,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space.The Diamondback R Series is our first auto press, and it is the best thing we have ever done here at Showdown Merch.
The Diamondback R Series is our first auto press, and it is the best thing we have ever done here at Showdown Merch. Matched up with the Mini Sprint 2000 and the Red Chili's, we are able to triple our workload easily. This press is the easiest press to set up and do a large order with, and take down is a breeze.
Amazing service on such a great product.
Any shops out there can feel free to give us a call at (403) 887-3388 if you need any other reviews on this product.
M&R makes the most high quality screen printing equipment in the world.
M&R makes the most high quality screen printing equipment in the world. Even with that said, parts get old and can wear out. Usually, at the worst possible time. It’s times like those that we’re glad we chose M&R as our equipment manufacturer. Even years after the sale, we can count on M&R 24/7. They are part of the fabric that is Ink Brigade. An instrumental partner in our success.
A frantic call in the middle of the night is always met on the other end of the line by an experienced member of their service staff who expertly diagnoses my issue, and starts the process of solving our problem.
No matter the age, or oddball part, the parts department makes sure I’ll have what I need the next morning. My printing crew hardly misses a beat and we don’t miss the deadline. That makes for happy customers and makes me appreciate M&R more and more every year. We rest easy knowing people like Dan Goldberg and the rest of the service and parts departments are working hard for us behind the scenes every day.
The Gauntlet III is a beast and is built to run 24/7/365.
We have had our Gauntlet III in production for nearly 3 months and have been thrilled with the machine. We have already put over 120,000 impressions on the machine and it is still going strong. We have found that the individual off-contact for each printhead helps with various printing techniques. It is also a plus to be able to adjust in 1/16” increments when needed. Our first job was a 9-color on dark apparel with a 17” print stroke and one flash. We were able to run the machine comfortably at 920 pieces per hour. The addition of the laser for print placements has saved us valuable time where we used to mark our pallets with a T-Square. The touchscreen interface is very user friendly and easy to make adjustments when needed.
Having a built-in maintenance schedule [M&R’s Maintenance Minder™] for the machine is another perk and allows management to easily assure that the presses are being properly maintained. We have not had any problems to date with the machine but are at ease knowing that all parts that we could ever need are able to be overnighted to us.
Overall, we have seen an increase in our production numbers due to the efficiencies gained with the newest technology on the market. We are able to run as fast as we can clear a screen and dry our underbase.
Simply put, the Gauntlet III is a beast and is built to run 24/7/365.
M&R proves why they are the leader when it comes to printing equipment.
We have been using our new I-Image STE for about 2 weeks now and it works great. Installation and training was a breeze, could not have been easier. It is the biggest time saver we have ever added to our process. We are printing and exposing screens in less than 90 seconds. Not only does it eliminate film cost completely, it produces screens faster and reduces setup time at the press. On top of that we are holding greater detail than ever before.
Once again M&R proves why they are the leader when it comes to printing equipment. Great job guys!
The Sprint 3000 Is Superb
The Sprint 3000 is superb and we are really, really happy with it. We've got the recipes dialed in for our inks now and it's running great. We have noticed improvements in the finish on our plastisols, too. They seem to be coming through much softer. Assuming it's because we are much more efficiently curing than with the electric curers!