[4taylormadetees]

conveyer dryer burned shirts.. HELP..I WAS USING DELTA SHIRTS HEATHER GRAY 90 %COTTON 10% POLY..
I NOTICED IT WAS GETTING 320 DEGREES IN THE MIDDLE OF DESIGN BUT WAS ONLY AROUND 280 OR SO ON THE EDGE OF DESIGN ..SO I SLOWED DOWN THE BELT AND IT WAS AROUND 380 IN THE MIDDLE AND 320 ON THE EDGES..BURNED MY WHOLE JOB BEFORE I NOTICED CAUSE I DIDNT HAVE A LIGHT AT THE END OF MY CONVEYOR. i have a compact workhorse conveyer..it has no temp dial. just belt speed,
i have had plenty of shirts get to that high of a temp in areas with the flash dryer and they never burn.

 

[beanie357]

Sorry to hear you had an issue. Some textiles have different flash points. Only testing would tell.
I would suggest:
Improve your lighting. We always go heavy on lights. We use HID's and 2 tube 8' HO's and never miss a thing.
See if your temp gun is off.
Throw out a oven w/no adjustment. Craigslist today.

Remove variables for easy resolution of problems.

 

[tpitman]

When are you measuring the temperature? I read where some measure the temp just as the shirts are exiting the tunnel, but I've taken the doors off the end of my dryer and, once the dryer temp stabilizes and a a half dozen shirts have come through, I squat down at the end and start taking readings when the shirts are about half way inside the tunnel and check as they progress from there, from both sides and the center. I never let them get much above 340. Bear in mind I keep my ink layers thin, and I also do a stretch test after the shirt comes out to confirm cure. I've got a cheap 5 foot dryer, but it does have a temp controller as well as belt speed. I know the temp can fluctuate some over the course of a run, but I've not had problems with burned shirts or undercured ones. I run my belt as slow as I can and still handle what I print, and keep the temp low to prevent overcooking the shirts. You want to hit the sweet spot where the temp is just above curing temperature, and enough time under it to ensure a full cure through the ink layer.

If you're electrically handy, you could put a temp control on the dryer you've got. Most are nothing but the same control as found on an electric stove top. If not, I'd shop around for a nice, used dryer that has one, as suggested above. My flash dryer has a temp control, too, and I wouldn't have one without it. Makes things easier to control by giving you some variables to get the results you want.

 

[4taylormadetees]

i did have the doors down to about 2 1/2 inches high or so .do you think i should try opening the doors up all the way first..and do you think i should raise the element up.

 

[tpitman]

I took the doors off of mine because they didn't make much difference, and it's a lot easier to get a temp reading up inside the tunnel. Can't say that you should do the same.
If you can adjust the height of the element, you might want to try different positions and see how it affects the temperature left to right. On a flash unit, the lower you get the more even the heat across the art. In a dryer tunnel, though, I don't know how that would affect things. The lower the element, the hotter it will get timewise, so you might want to experiment and see at what setting of belt speed and element height you get the most even cure temp without burning.
For what it's worth, I can't raise or lower the element on mine.

One other thing: I'm assuming your dryer uses an infrared element, not a calrod "oven style" one.