Richpeace, Feyia, Richrui and other chineese brands

julianne

Hi

Does anybody here use chineese embroidery machines? I've got two multihead Tajima but need more productivity and don't have a lot of money to spend for another Tajima. Is the quality of chineese brands better than it used to be few years ago?

pd87

Hi Julianne,
I have worked with Ricoma and Richrui Single head in the last two years. Yes they have improved since the early years but they are not even close to Tajima and Barudan. Biggest Problem is the tensioning. The use of cheap material and missing precision in production result in an inconsistent tension. So you will have to adjust the tension more often than on a Tajima. And you will still have more thread breaks than on other machines. But it isn't as bad as it sounds right now. After you have figured out how to run the machine best, you can produce nice embroidery for a cheap price. I would recommend to change the tension springs, this helps a lot....
If you go with Chinese machines you should choose a big one. A 6 or 8 head directly from china costs 10-15k plus shipping. And you will need a big one because you have to run this machines a lot slower than Japanese. With 650-750 St/min on flat and 550-650 St/min on caps I would suggest. Richrui is not producing for them self. Zhuji Fuwei is producing for them and labeling it richrui.
http://zjfuwei.en.alibaba.com/
You might get a good deal from them.

julianne

Ok, and how about this Richpeace brand? They look a little bit more professional...

pd87

I haven’t worked with them yet. But the differents between the Chinese machines are very small. They all use the same parts. None of them are producing pressure foots, needle bars, rotary hooks or the electronics. All of them are buying the parts somewhere else and just build the together. It is a little bit like building a house. You get the furniture from company A, the electronics from B and the Windows from Company C. The embroidery Computers come from Dahao or Topwisdom, the main embroidery machine parts (pressure foot, needle bar...) from another company and some parts are usually imported (rotary hook, belt....).

Maybe you should go to trade show or exhibition. Normally there are some Chinese manufacturers presenting their product. If you are early you can buy on of their machines from the show. You can save the shipping costs to the USA and they can save the shipping costs back to china. And you know that the machine is running smoothly, because they only take the best built machines to the show.

LogoAdvantage

Does a cheap machine that is not nearly as producitve really save you money or does it end up costing you more ?

My biggest cost is payroll so I want my payroll expenses to go as far as possible which means I want to be running the most productive machines that I can run.

One of my operators makes more in a week than the machine cost in a months lease payment so do I really want slow the employee down ?

Service expenses on china equipment will be higher and getting parts may often be an issue as well which leads to more down time. China machines also will not hold their value well so that should be factored into your investment.

The Quality of the embroidery is not nearly as good because the machines are not as precise so the embroidery quality suffers.

You may think your saving money on the purchase but I really question if that up front savings is a real savings over time.

julianne

Price for 8-head Richpeace or Feiya in my region(Europe) is 1/4 of a new 8-head Tajima. I'm able to have 2x8 china heads for half price of 8-head Tajima. Tajima goes with speed around 900, china - 700.

I still have my Tajimas to do high quality production, and look for something cheap to embroider easy designs.

The most interesting question for me is what happens if I run the same .dst file in a tajima and china machine. Is it only the speed difference or the quality will be poor when I compare the results?

pd87

LogoAdvantage has a point with the payroll. That was the main reason why we sold our two single head from china. We are a small company and it is important for us that the machine can run a big design unattended, while we continue working on other projects like preparing a screen for screen printing. But if you have two multiheads you will have always one or two people hooping and working in front of the machine. The differents is: with a tajima you need one man for hooping and operating for china machines maybe two. So that one is always hooping and one is helping to hoop or fixing thread breaks. In my opinion it is better to have less personal and a better machine running flawless. But if you have already enough manpower and they still have time after hooping for the tajima the Chinese machines can work.

Service and spare parts should be no problem. Every Tech from Happy, Barudan or Tajima can fix a Richpeace or Feyia. And for spare parts you can ask any distributor of chinese machines in your country (Ricoma, CTC, Richpeace) they all have the same parts. Or you are using Fedex express and it will be there in 2-3 days. And you will always receive a box full of spare parts with the machine.

If I put an embroidery from my Barudan next to a china machine I can see the different quality. But it is not that big and you have to see them next to each other to recognize it. Small lettering and some cap designs can be problematic.
For sure you have a reseller of Ricoma in your country. Send them a file that you have done with your tajima and compare it later on. You have to decide if the quality is good enough for you.

julianne

What is the main reason for thread breaks? Replacing rotary hooks and tension springs + setting hook timing solves the problem? Or maybe these machines are so badly produced that nothing helps to make them working fine for a longer time.

pd87

You can improve the machine by using good springs. This is what the distributors of Ricoma and KSM are doing in Germany. The Results are better but it is still not the same like Tajima. The people assembling these machines in china are no engineers and they are working with very simple tools. If they drill a hole a few mm left or right from the correct spot or if a bearing is sitting to tight or lose it will influence the performance of the machine. Lower quality plastic and metal materials used for the parts will have an influence too. The machine will function correctly but any mistake will have an effect on the tension. I have seen machines running for several hours without breaks and I have seen machines where you had thread breaks every 20-30.000 Stitches...
You might consider buying a machine from good distributor in your Country. If he knows what he is doing he has tested the machine for one or two days before selling it. In Germany you could go to our Barudan distributor because they are selling machines from China (CTC-Brand) too. And you can expect a good service and people who know what they doing. But the price will be a totally different one than in china.

Robert Young

quotes like "quality not even close", "more thread breaks", "run machines slower" and "change the springs" would make me RUN away from those machines,, not even consider them! What about a pre-owned Tajima? you already have them, so you already know what they can do... nothing new to learn. Are your current machines running 24/7? three shifts plus weekends? if not then there is an opportunity without buying a machine until they are running as much as possible?

Thread breaks.... to me the quality of the thread is the main issue... then needles, then operator ability to have proper tensions. Similar question.... do you go cheaper and spend more in TIME? (Tajima vs lesser, or quality thread vs not so much). Pay up front and enjoy years of quality without second guessing yourself.

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Modern Embroidery Designer
www.volant-tech.com
www.volantfineart.com