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.
i went to a supplier for a dryer but it's very expensive here, he told me i can buy a flash cure unit to cure plastisol it's cheaper.. i would like to know if really i can cure plastisol with a flash cure unit, does this work? some advice please
Yes, you can cure plastisol with a flash dryer. We recommend the unit to be 3" off the garment and leave it under for 40-45 seconds. This is an estimate, it may take longer by a few seconds or shorter as the shirt board heats up.
Plastisol needs to reach 320 degrees to be cured. That time frame should get you there. It is best thought o have a temp gun to make sure you are getting to 320 degrees.
After you do that, try to build a "curing station" a flat surface where you do a final curing, instead of curing the plastisol over the pallet, to avoid the platen warp.
Normally it is the same height that the pallet, so you just turn the flash dryer from one side (when flashing) to the other (when curing).
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As Jerry used to say : Profit is not a dirty word.
Agree with Marcelo, don't cure on your platen. Not only will your platen last longer, but you'll be able to print the next shirt while the previous one is curing. This will cut your job time in half.
Another thing that i have noticed about curing on your pallet, is that if you use any type of spray adhesive to hold the shirt down ( haven't used the tacky glue stuff so i dont know about that ) your adhesive will actually over your session start to turn very oily and almost seem like its melting on your pallet. This starts to cause a problem with holding shirts down at a later time. This happened to me and on my pallet you can clearly see a huge circle of this very oily substance that is very hard to get off. I now know its very important to do the final cure off the pallet
Any body got advice for graphic size, I have to move my graphic once to cure the entire 15x15 with a 16x16 flash, don't really know what the ratio is for a 16x16, but a 18x18 would most likely cure the graphics I have. I would guess 2-3 inches smaller than the flash unit, maybe? New graphics are 3 inches smaller than the unit or more, haven't tried to do any of these yet.
Get one with a temp control if possible because a voltage regulator for outlet to unit control runs 175 to 300 dollars, and only a few places carry these. may not be in your budget. You can use a small fan separate if needed to clear the water vapor on water base inks, works good.
cure plastisol with flash cure 
