Anybody here got a Starlight exposure unit?

[dirkdiggler]

Think its gonna be my next purchase.

[jvanick]

I have one on order...  I should be picking up at the end of the month, or very early in may
 

[Homer]

just showed up to my door yesterday...2 weeks early thanks to the Hoffenator....setting it up to start testing tomorrow, super excited

[Mr Tees!!]

...TOTALLY dig ours. Alleviated a bottleneck for us, and we can count on consistency. In fact, I had set up 18 screens with film to burn yesterday (we image both screen ends with like colors, so this takes a little planning and time).....with one person exposing/removing film and another rinsing/racking....we were done at 5:40. For us that a BIG improvement over our previous system!

[ScreenPrinter123]

A small aside --- These guys have been out (along with other LED units) for some time now. Anyone YET to have any info on a discharge run of 2,000 or more pieces - if so, what emulsion?  What did emulsion feel like at the end of the run?  Breakdowns? Etc.?  <insert cricket noise>

[Homer]

A small aside --- These guys have been out (along with other LED units) for some time now. Anyone YET to have any info on a discharge run of 2,000 or more pieces - if so, what emulsion?  What did emulsion feel like at the end of the run?  Breakdowns? Etc.?  <insert cricket noise>

you'll have to Hassle the Hoff for that info, when I spoke to him, they were in the middle of a 1k piece dc run without any signs of wear....

to me -if you think about it, it's either exposed properly...or it's not...no matter the emulsion or exposing method.

[ScreenPrinter123]

Thanks homer - I'm sure. 244 will post results.. One would hope - with the pros or cons, but getting this info has been like pulling teeth to say the least. I'm curious for the sake of future buyers as a consideration, for if it can't hold on these dc runs, while it is certainly a step forward for some shops (e.g., with speed on plastisol and perhaps small dc runs) it's certainly a step backward for others, especially the way the "industry is going".

You are right about it either being exposed or not (thanks to the law of the excluded middle :-)) but 1) even some fully exposed emulsions will break down on dc, as you well know and 2) the only way to find out if it's fully exposed, at least fully exposed for decent size dc runs for the medium sized shop, is to throw it on press and run a decent size dc job to find out, not look through a loupe, alas.

[244]

Thanks homer - I'm sure. 244 will post results.. One would hope - with the pros or cons, but getting this info has been like pulling teeth to say the least. I'm curious for the sake of future buyers as a consideration, for if it can't hold on these dc runs, while it is certainly a step forward for some shops (e.g., with speed on plastisol and perhaps small dc runs) it's certainly a step backward for others, especially the way the "industry is going".

You are right about it either being exposed or not (thanks to the law of the excluded middle :-)) but 1) even some fully exposed emulsions will break down on dc, as you well know and 2) the only way to find out if it's fully exposed, at least fully exposed for decent size dc runs for the medium sized shop, is to throw it on press and run a decent size dc job to find out, not look through a loupe, alas.

During our testing we ran 1,000 shirts with no breakdown of emulsion. We ran the test with a full size back print with discharge and left chest front print with all plastisol. Virtually no difference. You will typically find better results with the Starlight than any mercury vapor unit we make. Just a FYI .

[alan802]

The next big DC run we do I plan on using the vastex LED unit at my supplier to expose a few screens and our MH unit to do the rest of the screens assuming it's a multicolored job and I'll have a direct comparison on press under the same conditions.

[Homer]

if any of you guys want me to test expose an emulsion you use, Id be happy to do it...send some films and a sample of emulsion, I have a few different exposure calculators here I am going to run first. have a few jobs to run first, then I'm off to fire this baby up..

[ScreenPrinter123]

Thanks homer - I'm sure. 244 will post results.. One would hope - with the pros or cons, but getting this info has been like pulling teeth to say the least. I'm curious for the sake of future buyers as a consideration, for if it can't hold on these dc runs, while it is certainly a step forward for some shops (e.g., with speed on plastisol and perhaps small dc runs) it's certainly a step backward for others, especially the way the "industry is going".

You are right about it either being exposed or not (thanks to the law of the excluded middle :-)) but 1) even some fully exposed emulsions will break down on dc, as you well know and 2) the only way to find out if it's fully exposed, at least fully exposed for decent size dc runs for the medium sized shop, is to throw it on press and run a decent size dc job to find out, not look through a loupe, alas.

During our testing we ran 1,000 shirts with no breakdown of emulsion. We ran the test with a full size back print with discharge and left chest front print with all plastisol. Virtually no difference. You will typically find better results with the Starlight than any mercury vapor unit we make. Just a FYI .

That's great news!  What type of emulsion?  Mesh Count? Exposure time?  Type of Hardener?  Type of DC Ink (someone posted here recently saying the cci ink ate away at Aquasol more so than the other major brands out there)? Single stroking, or double?  Durometer of squeegee?  At least in my experience, all of those things had a major play before we fixed screens breaking down/having issues on press.  If your tester was double stroking at 1k pieces (effectively making it a 2k piece run) with a 65 duro squeegees and used a NON-permanent hardener without a LONG exposure time (though that'd obviously be reflected in the type of emulsion used) then I'd say that the Starlight is a  major contender with DC inks for most mid-sized shops.  Again, great news -- hopefully you have a chance to post some of the other info shortly.  Thanks 244.

[jvanick]

Homer: what are your typical emulsions that you guys use?

We use Xenon Nova with and without diazo here...  Alex at M&R told me he is guessing that exposure time for a 200mesh screen 1x1 should be around 40 seconds or so...   I can't wait to try it out.

[Alex M]

That was with SP-1400 on the 200 just for a reference of what we were doing at the T&J Open House.

[Homer]

testing right now. - I just did a 305 CCI TX-Discharge PP w/ diazo, coated 2/1 round edge for 10 seconds. over exposed, did another for 5 seconds, underexposed. so I'm trying 8 seconds and that should nail it. MacDermid calcultors. I have some HXT to try too but I need to get a rough idea before burning through a rack of screens...




I am going to do a trial run here with DC ink, and dry cycle my other gauntlet fora few hours and see what happens....

btw, this thing is freakin SWEET....vacuum in about 7 seconds, exposure around 8, I took a piss longer this thing takes to do a whole screen..use THAT in your sales sheet....

[jvanick]

Thanks Alex... I won that bucket of sp1400, so as soon as I get mine here, I'll have to get it a shot