Ok I bought a heat laser and ran a shirt thru my dryer as the shirt is coming out it reads 240 but I had one test strip left and it read that it reached the 330 but what I was told was aim that laser at shirt when it's coming out of the dryer but that only read 240 any suggestions
Why do you think your drier is drying at 800 degrees when your test strips are showing 330 and your temp gun shows 240? Think about it logically and methodically - something is not right there.
800 would bake the fcuk out of the ink, (as mentioned already)
All my temp test strips have been totally unreliable - maybe I got a bad batch, but the consistency was absolute trash. I mean T R A S H! I used up a whole batch of strips and never once got results that correlated with the quality of the cured ink, when cross referenced with heat gun data. Maybe I was supplied with old strips - I don't know.
I ended up using a laser guided infra-red heatgun (super cheap and sounds amazing to customers)
As the shirt is coming out the drier, angle the gun so that it targets the ink whilst the shirt is still inside the drier, just as the shirt is approaching the exit. Also time how long it takes for the shirt to go through, remembering that it takes time for the ink to warm up to the exit temperature. I had to slow down the speed of the conveyor belt on my drier considerably - actually to the point where it now almost takes me as much time to load and print a shirt (1 stroke, no flash), as it does for one to go through the drier - very convenient!
If you are only reading 240 on a temp gun, then I would look at slowing down the conveyor, (for me it kinda feels painfully slow when I look at it, but when I am working and start to load a few of them in, it spits them out at a comfortable rate), or alternatively raise the temp settings on the drier.
Afterwards perform 2 quality tests:
~#1 Stretch test. Stretch the shirt and ensure the ink also stretches. If it cracks badly, that's a nice sign you are undercured. Put it back through the drier and try again. if unsuccessful, raise temp or slow down conveyor belt speed. retest.
~#2 - Scratch and smear the crap out of it once the ink has cooled! You should not get any blurring, smudging or ink transfer to the rest of the garment. If you do, you are under cured. Make sure it has cooled sufficiently first, though. Warm plastisol is softer and can be tacky.
All my shirts have to go through a quality control process before they are allowed to be delivered to the customer - heat temp at shirt #1 on exit of the drier, mid way through the printing process, (depending on order numbers - sometimes more often), and last shirt through is also zapped with the temp gun. then I perform the 2 tests on all shirts that are temp tested. This is documented and given to the customer, along with washing instructions.
Covers the crap out of you, maintains quality, and makes you look super professional - especially when you refer to laser-guided infra-red temp guns
That's 2 hyphens on 1 testing device. SUPER-AWESOME-IMPRESSIVE!
Hope this helps. Let us know how you get on
Also - try washing your own products before you start selling to customers. If you post your shirts, post them to yourself first to see what the customer gets when you send them something. THink about the WHOLE process, start to finish. All my shirts are delivered folded to my customers, for example - it means they can load them straight on the shelves or into storage from delivery. Saves them expense and makes you look good (never a bad thing). btw, I use a shirt folder to fold the shirts. as used by Sheldon Cooper in the laundry room on The Big Bang Theory, and available on Ryan Moor's site
http://www.silkscreeningsupplies.com/product/FLIPFOLD
Richie
