Discuss the different types of equipment needed for screen printing. Topics include manual screen printing presses, automatic presses, dryers, folding machines, starter kits and high end machines.
Hi. This is a bit embarrassing...
I just bought a "screen printing package" and I'm not sure how to use everything. I was a water-based printer before, and now I'm trying to get into plastisol to increase output, etc.
How in the world does the flash unit work? I don't know what brand I have, and it's not here or I'd go look, sorry.
I plug it in, a light turns red, there's a reader that goes from 0-?. Where do I want that knob to be? Do flashes just heat up and you swing it over the shirt to flash the color, cure later? or potentially cure?
I realize I may sound like an ***.
Any help would be great. Thanks.
the flash I have , I just plug it in and wait 10 - 15 minutes for it to warm up...there is no temp control or readout on mine.....plastisol cures at a temp of 320 degrees for 30 - 45 seconds...and yes you swing the flash over each color for 5 - 10 seconds to flash cure the ink before putting another color down....keep in mind that you only need to flash the ink if the colors of the design are touching each other.
If you're using it to flash between colors, flash the shirt until the ink is just tacky but doesn't come off on your finger. If you're using it to cure, and you don't have a temp gun (which you should get anyway) cure it until you see some vapors coming off it. How quickly it cures depends upon how hot the flash gets, how far away from the shirt the flash is, and how long you leave it under the flash. If the ink is thick, let it cure longer. You can't really over-cure the ink, but the longer it stays under the heat the glossier it will get. Essentially, the ink is cured as soon as the entire ink layer hits 300-320 degrees. Keep your ink as thin as possible, cure the shirts by minding the temperature, and you'll get a good product. One other thing with a flash . . . its quite easy to get the ink cured in the middle of the design, but the outer edges will take longer. If you get a temp gun, you'll notice quite a difference between the temperature of the ink in the middle and at the edges. The bigger the flash, the better. The closer the flash to the shirt, the more even the temperature across the design, if you art is almost as big as your flash.
As with everything else in screen printing, ask a hundred, a get a hundred answers.
Experiment with flashing between colors. I've actually had better luck NOT flashing between 2 colors that contact each other. I've only done it on 2 color jobs, but hopefully I'll try it on a 4 color soon.
If you're printing dark ink on light shirts, there's no reason to flash. If you've got two colors which touch, try to make your trap, if any, as small as possible and print lighter ink first.
That's right, you don't always have to flash between colors. It depends on the ink color(s) you're putting on which color shirt. Experience is your best teacher but sometimes we get four color jobs on light shirt and they don't require any flash at all, just a final cure, and we can flash cure 60 shirts an hour. Other times, we may do a four color on black shirts and work our a$$es off. We have one customer in particular who always orders her four color front and back logo on black garments and sometimes it takes us forever. She has four light colors that have to be built up and flashed between every color. So, we go print/flash print/flash first color, print/flash print/flash second color and so on until the final cure. Hopefully your press has many workstations/platens because it's very helpful to let your platen cool some between colors.
TPitman is right. You have to watch your temperature differences between the center of the platen and the outer edges and corners. If you're flash curing, when you pull your platen from under the flash and probe it with your temp sensor, you may read a temp of 320 at the center of the print but only 240 near the edges. Find your happy medium so that the largest portion of your print reaches the proper cure temp without scorching the center of your shirt.
You'll find over time that if you flash cure your shirts your platen's life span will be very short. Your platens will probably develop a hump in their center and eventually you'll have to throw the platen away because your off contact in the center of the platen and the edges will be drastically different. Not life or death on one-color text jobs but registration will be in an issue on multicolor jobs. If you're going to flash cure a lot, make friends with a cabinet maker who can make you platens from scrap countertops. I traded a dozen shirts to a cabinet maker who loaded my truck up with good, usable scraps and we made youth, adult, oversized, sleeve and even some specialty platens. I know it's off the subject a little, but flash curing is rough on platens.
__________________
Using a 6C Manual, 30" cutter/plotter and my trusty heat press to pay my bills. I don't need Uncle Sam to bail me out! It's called common sense!
Wouldn't it be easier to just underbase the whole thing with white, flash, then do your colors instead of doing each color P/F/P?
You're very right about the flash warping pallets. I used mine that I made out of melamine for a couple months. I didn't print many shirts, but did a lot of flashing while practicing white ink. It was cupped by about 1/8". I was hoping my new one that I made from phenolic wouldn't warp, but it crowns a little when it get's warm. It goes back when it cools. I think it's because I have 1/8" phenolic over 3/8". Top expands, bottom doesn't.
I would crank it up high and get used to working w/o the dial. I flash or cure about 4" off the shirt. For a full cure, I made a "dummy" platen beside my press that i just lay the shirt on after I print and use that 10-15 seconds while its curing to load my next shirt for printing.
An I.R. thermometer is really handy until you get the hang of it. I still yous my I.R. often ..so it was a great investment.
flash unit--how to use it--embarrassing 
Re: flash unit--how to use it--embarrassing 
