Diamondback - How many prints per hour

[jvieira]

One stroke + heavier pressure on flood might do the trick

So I tried this.

We were doing a job using gold and my press operator started with print (underbase)+flash+revolver+print (underbase)+flash+print (gold) (all double stroke except gold*) as usual (he tells me gold needs a good white coverage to pop unlike other inks). I then saw and thought it was a good time to make some tests.

I added pressure on the flood (I now get perfect ink coverage), added a lot of speed to the squeegee and tried to print+flash (and avoid revolver mode) but nothing happened. No changes at all.
We were using a hard squeegee too so we should have gotten some good coverage out of it.


*we only did one gold pass so it could retain some detail

white (x1 pass): http://cl.ly/image/39363B0b0X2d
gold (x1 pass after 2 white passes): http://cl.ly/image/030I3c0i0b3r

[Rockers]

One stroke + heavier pressure on flood might do the trick

So I tried this.

We were doing a job using gold and my press operator started with print (underbase)+flash+revolver+print (underbase)+flash+print (gold) (all double stroke except gold*) as usual (he tells me gold needs a good white coverage to pop unlike other inks). I then saw and thought it was a good time to make some tests.

I added pressure on the flood (I now get perfect ink coverage), added a lot of speed to the squeegee and tried to print+flash (and avoid revolver mode) but nothing happened. No changes at all.
We were using a hard squeegee too so we should have gotten some good coverage out of it.


*we only did one gold pass so it could retain some detail

white (x1 pass): http://cl.ly/image/39363B0b0X2d
gold (x1 pass after 2 white passes): http://cl.ly/image/030I3c0i0b3r

I normally don`t bother with a white underbase under metallic gold. We just make twice the same screen one gold before the flash and one after the flash. A roller squeegee right after the flash for good measure then the second gold screen. We print our metallics through 120-S or 150-S mesh. What sort of metallic inks do you use?

[jvieira]

That is very interesting! We had done white+flash+gold but the outcome wasn't great as the gold was more yellowish, so we decided to give it a try with a whiter white. Will make sure to try gold+flash+gold and see what happens.

We use plastisol gold (printop).
this one I believe (http://www.printop.com/printoppo/cont/verseritex.php?t=on&codht=fOtT53PipP)

[Rockers]

You can get Printop in Portugal, that`s where you are located, right?
Thought they were mainly for the South American market.
The Union shimmer gold is real nice, for silver we like Wilflex Epic liquid silver.

[jvieira]

What time is it in Japan? I wasn't expecting any replies until later (04am in the US, 9am in Portugal).

Yes, we can get printop here, it's the only inks we use.

I tried what you suggested and liked the result. It's a lot different from what we got. What sort of gold do you usually put out? left or right?

With underbase on the left, without underbase on the right. Probably neally need a roller to make it look good though.
http://cl.ly/image/2A0D3a1n302s

[Rockers]

Oh we are on the left hand side for sure.
Time to go home soon, almost 6pm here.

[jvieira]

After a lot of testing and tweaking, we've now hit a new all time record or 34dz/h with 2 operators early in the week.
We're still going 25dz/h with one op at best.

We're doing things a bit different from most, though.

If working with 2 people on the machine
Person 1 - removes shirt and inserts new one
Person 2 - aligns new shirt

We just can't get the new shirt right at first, always needs a bit of tweaking and that costs us a lot of time. Still, if we can keep it at 30dz/h, it works for now until we manage to get it a bit faster.

This is p+f+p (two strokes with white ink)

[jvanick]

wow, that's really low and would have NOT happy with our crew... in our shop:

the loader must be able to load the shirt and straighten it.

the puller should just be pulling.

even with an in-experienced puller (we hire a lot of 'friends'/unemployed/underemployed people to help pull), you should be hitting 450-500/hr almost right out of the gate.  600/hr after a few hours of practice.

Is your diamondback an air-index or servo index?  I suppose that could affect your numbers due to how an air-index press indexs (slow acceleration vs fast on the servo).

[GaryG]

Sounds like you're tuning it in!

That second person aligning new shirt is certainly not needed
when one learns to load at speed. They should be dong something else.

Or normally one loading, one unloading. If press slow on white, they can catch.

Keep up the good work!

[jvieira]

It's a process. In the past month we've improved and got speed up by 50%. I want to make it higher and I know we can easily reach 40dz/h printing black ink (or no underbase).

Will continue to push it until the end of the year and set an objective of 40dz/h on average. That would be a 100% improvement from where we were earlier this month.

Our Diamondback is air-index and the top speed is 54dz/h, it won't go any faster.

We have a 2000 shirt production to be done next week, got it set up for 4 days (includes color variations and bagging) but will try and do it all in 2. Should be easily doable and I will push my op to reach the highest possible number.


Loading at speed is the hardest part for me. We did 34 when I was the loader and I'm a short guy (the pallets are too high for me to feel comfortable at faster speeds). Should be easier and faster for someone taller. Will also try and do it like everyone else does (one op for unloading, another for loading). Will see how it goes