Printing on aluminum pallets vs rubber coated pallets

[Shanarchy]

For people who have done both, what do you find are the differences? MHM and S Roque are regarded as really nice presses and uses uncoated pallets. But I always understood that rubber coated pallets, which come on virtually every other automatic press, were supposed to be better. Pros? Cons?

[aauusa]

I have tried the rubber pallets but to me I did not like them.  several reason,  pallet tape is a pain to take off and the rubber is very sensitive to nicks and such which effected the print.

[3Deep]

Rubber here for me, only reason I see pallet tape not peeling off is it's been left on a very long time, plus you get a nice soft surface to print on using rubber tops.

[TCT]

I have both currently, like the aluminum ones better. They dispersed the heat quicker. It may be in my head, but I feel the print is more "true" on the aluminum ones. Sorry, I know that is kinda BS reason, it's just hard to explain!

[jsheridan]

I've used both extensively and don't' see much if any difference in the final print. Shirt next to shirt you can't tell.

I like the toughness and durability of the solid M&R boards. Over time the rubber gets hard and prints like the alum skin anywho.

[TCT]

Agreed, I don't think there is ANY difference in the final product.

[sben763]

The heat disapation or heat conductivity rate is much higher on bare aluminum.  Although this means the cool off faster they also heat up faster.  The rubber deteriation is usally due to spray tack, or petroleum based cleaning products, also over heating. 

The rubber is alittle more forgiving.  When I was printing on bare aluminum if a big peice of lint or other debris was on the pallet less ink was deposited in that area.  The rubber will allow a slight amount of deflection allowing a more consistent print. 

I agree though that the bare aluminum seem to give just a slightly cleaner print

[3Deep]

This is getting to be a good thread never really thought about a cleaner print on bare aluminum pallets, I would think that getting waterbase glue off bare aluminum would be a booty to get clean? or maybe not.  I will agree with the statement made about getting a lint ball on solid pallet's, will cause a light ink spot, happen's on our manual press which has no rubber top pallets.

[Shanarchy]

Either way you'd still be covering them with pallet tape so cleanup should be relatively the same.

[jsheridan]

The heat disapation or heat conductivity rate is much higher on bare aluminum.  Although this means the cool off faster they also heat up faster. 

When I run hot I prefer to use thick boards, the honeycomb cool off to fast and are hard to control consistent heat with. I can get a set of rubber topped boards at the perfect flash temp for a multi flash run and keep them there. I don't worry to much when I have to stop for a piece of lint as they retain heat well, I have about 30-40 seconds before I have to worry about after flash stick.

with the honeycomb boards If we stop for more than 20 seconds we get the after flash stick for a few shirts till things are hot again.

[Sbrem]

We have both, MHM with metal, and an old Gauntlet with the rubber. We can print a heavy single impression white better on the Gauntlet, but a PFP is much better on the metal plates, at least that's our impression.

Steve

We're in Framingham, Shane if you were ever in the neighborhood you'd be welcome to stop and see the MHM.

[Shanarchy]

You're not too far away, Steve. I should really take you up on that.

[blue moon]

rubber will deposit a little bit more than straight metal.
most other differences have been addressed.

pierre

[Maxie]

I think you can get the same result with different squeegees.
I kept getting different recommendations for the correct shore and figured out that the pallet affects the results.
You can use a softer squeegee on a aluminum pallet than you can on a pallet coated with rubber for the same result.
We have a MHM with aluminum, don't have problems of rubber hardening with age or burning if over flashed.