Manual Roller Squeegee Solution

[Action1]

Ladies and Gentlemen of TSB:

Many of you & your industry associates have asked for this -
We have developed a solution to accomplish the use of a Roller Squeegee for all manual machinery that has a rear clamp.

The operator lowers the screen and pushes the front handle forward to lock the screen and pallet together. Then, the operator push's & pulls the roller squeegee over the recently flashed image.

We would appreciate feedback on this design.

[Screened Gear]

That looks like a great idea. Get that into production asap....

[Action1]

That looks like a great idea. Get that into production asap....

Thank you for your positive feedback Jon.

[Screened Gear]

Have you tried it yet? Or is this just a digital mock-up.

[Action1]

Have you tried it yet? Or is this just a digital mock-up.

It's a rendered model...

[mimosatexas]

Awesome idea and execution.  My critiques or modifications would be:

-I'm not sure if it is meant to be a permanent addition to the screen, but some way to clamp the front instead of bolting it in would be ideal (i think). 

-It may just not be in the mockup, but I would think some way to adjust the roller to fit multiple screen thicknesses would be a good addition as well.  I know I have 3 brands of statics and they all have frames of slightly different thicknesses.  To piggy back on this idea, making the overall width adjustable would be great as well.

-Is there any way to adjust the pressure of the roller against the screen?  Depending on the job it may be nice to have some adjustment here, using a mechanism on the handle similar to the way to locking mechanism works (angle of the handle adjusts the height/pressure), or with some kind of central or a pair of threaded knobs to move the roller up and down once mounted.

If you haven't already, I would think you could make a working version for side clamps as well, by having a central guidebar you clamp to the front and back of the frame that went through the main support above the roller, and adding one handle on either side.  You could even make it adjustable to fit different frame sizes by having a max roller area (say 19 inches long), but extendable ends for the clamps.

[Action1]

MimosaTexas - that's an impressive hand sketched isometric drawing . Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas. All of your suggestion are excellent & we will consider how these features can be incorporated. Thank you - any others??

[mimosatexas]

I blame a few years in architecture school, but that was like 30 seconds and pretty shitty honestly.  It doesnt show the extensions on either end of the guides, but you could add a 3rd bar on the top for that, or house them within the guide bars.  Really whatever was structurally strongest.  You could honestly make a single device that worked for both side and back clamps if you went with guides on the outsides and a central handle, but had the guides/clamps far enough apart that they would be outside standard back clamp widths but inside sideclamp widths.  attached another quick/rough sketch...obviously would need to be cleaned up and streamlined and tested for different structural configurations etc.  A handle on the top might be more ergonomic, though might add weird stresses, as well.  The clamps on the "inside" of the screen might be better turned 90 degrees so they offer more clearance when used on side clamp presses.

[Action1]

Pardon my delayed reply and thank you for the excellent suggestions Mimosatexas. 
One thing I see is that the clamping components in your drawing seem as if they will interfere with the rear screen clamping on the machine. I think you're design would work with a side frame holder setup, but not a rear frame holder. Being able to adjust the pressure on the roller is important - agreed. We're examining solutions for this.

The price for the complete setup-  including a 23 x 31 Aluminum Frame with Teflon already adhered to it -  $645.00
As with any of our products - We will guarantee your satisfaction or give you a 100% refund.
Call us or email us – 770-934-1584, sales@actionengineering.com

[mimosatexas]

My second drawing addressed the idea of it working for both side and rear, though not clearly or to scale I suppose.  To make it work for side AND rear clamps, you would just make the distance between where the roller supports attach to the frame wider than the width of back clamps from the big brands.  Say the screen is 23 inches wide total and the frame is 1.5 inches wide, that gives you 20 inches to work with along the back of the screen  The back clamps I have seen are around 12-14 inches wide maximum, which would give you 3-4 inches on either side to work with where the it could attach.  If it comes as a prefab unit already adhered to a screen, you have even more options, like making the frame itself wider in the back, or even housing the rolling mechanism within the frame, and your only concern would be clearing the width of the side or back clamp with any support or ergonomic pieces.

Sorry to keep pushing for the dual configuration, but I would think a lot of people who would be in the market for a specialized piece of equipment like this would also be using side clamps, or have multiple machines in their shops with different configurations, and rather than buying two pieces of equipment that do the same thing, a single piece could seemingly be designed to work with both.

uploaded a very basic sketch showing where side and rear clamps sit on the frame on different machines and where the support for the roller could sit in the gap to work for both configurations.

[mimosatexas]

Honestly the more I think about it, if the unit is prefab and things will be bolted or welded to the frame, you could easily house everything within the interior dimensions of the existing screen frame and be able to clamp it anywhere without interfering with clamps of any kind or the image are you will be rolling.  I don't see the point of going above or around the frame at all unless it was made to come off or adjust to multiple screen sizes.

[3Deep]

600 plus is some coin for that unit, as much as I think you all do a great job building stuff us screen printers can use, I just could not see myself dishing out that kind of money for that unit.  Why not just put a roller on a custom fit squeegee handle with adjustable tension for the roller to keep it from rolling to fast, I,m sure the cost for this would be a lot less than what your asking now, even if you want to sell it with a custom teflon screen.

Darryl

[DCSP John]

Darryl makes the most sense...

[Shanarchy]

It's great in theory, but I can't see this being a realistic option on a manual press due to the amount of time it would take. But that is just my opinion.

That said, I think the auto one is a great idea.

[mimosatexas]

i wouldn't spend 650 bucks on it, as i feel i could easily fabricate one myself for half that and it would do what I want, but i would definitely use it for certain jobs where quality trumped simply pumping out shirts.  I have even used a lint screen on my manual before, for a low quantity order where it actually saved time over picking lint balls out of the mesh every other print.  It was on some fuzzy bella shirts that were a giant PITA...