Do you use multiple flashes?

[Dottonedan]

Typical printing procedure?

I came across a printer who has 4 flashes in his press taking up print stations. They flash after every 3 colors due to nessesety they say.

I may be wrong, so I'm asking, but shouldn't you be able to print 6-8 colors all wet on wet after the first flash (even for solid spot color printing) if you have high mesh, high tension, close off contact, sharp squeegees etc?

I know that's how we ran at Park Printing. Most of our jobs were 10-14 colors and typically only had one flash. If we did another, it was very close to the last 3 colors. Sometimes 10 colors were on wet. So I'm wondering, is this what's normal or is it normal to flash often?

If they do an 8th color, they revolve.

[mk162]

sounds more like a band-aid.  I will say the newer inks from Wilflex are a bit trickier to get good opacity with, but I still only like one flash.

[mimosatexas]

I dont have an auto, but from what I've picked up don't most places run one flash after the base, and one just before the highlight white or key black at the end, or use it to take care of thin or sticky colors late in the order?

[ericheartsu]

if they are doing HSA, sounds about right.

[dirkdiggler]

That's a band aid for bad art, bad screens, lack of knowledge.  I can a 10 color design with 1 flash on darks all day long.  I prefer not to, but have done it for years.  Most important thing,  GOOD SEPS.  My opinion.

[dirkdiggler]

Yeah HSA or LOTS of flo colors.

[mk162]

I thought HSA was darn near every color?

[ericheartsu]

I thought HSA was darn near every color?

from what we've found, it depends on the HSA color, and the size. We try to do a flash every two colors, but have gotten away with 3.

[Screen Dan]

We have three 12-color and one 14-color...2 flashes each.  One after the base, one before the highlight white and black. 

The second flash helps keep things clean and sharp with minimal effort...but with a tiny bit more effort and attention that second flash is mostly unnecessary.

We only do plastisol and WB/DC, never messed with HSA or silicone so I can't speak to that.

But...4 flashes?  That's definitely a band-aid, perhaps on a compound fracture.

[alan802]

In my opinion and experience, which I've spent many years trying to lower our flash usage and printing as many colors as possible wet on wet, the more perfect you have everything the more colors you can print wet on wet.  But most importantly, you can't print a single color wet on wet if your ink sucks.  If you have great WOW inks then you better have high mesh/thin ink deposits, along with good tension and sharp blades.  Then you better be able to keep temps inside the shop down.  Then there is the art.  If you have large open areas of ink, you'll be limited.  If you have a process job then you usually can do as many WOW as you want/need.  But larger prints, spot colors, even with great ink I think you'll find going beyond 3-4 colors will be more trouble than it's worth.  We've had jobs that should have been easy WOW prints that we had to use an ink that wasn't WOW compatible and nothing else matters, you have to flash that color.  I think we've done 6-7 colors in a row but a typical 7 color on darks will have 2 flashes, one for the base then one in between the other colors.  High opacity inks don't usually work at all.

We've also had great inks and as the temp gets higher, around 105, the ink will then start to separate in the screen and buildup will be massive and happen really fast. 

[GraphicDisorder]

With most of our jobs being 4-7 colors per side we often are using 2 flashes, even a couple times a week using 3 flash when the art gets into the 8-9 range which leaves us no cool downs which gets fun. 2nd bigger press is in our future.

[brandon]

I thought HSA was darn near every color?

from what we've found, it depends on the HSA color, and the size. We try to do a flash every two colors, but have gotten away with 3.

Yup. On top of discharge we have gotten away with 5 but it was all halftones. The norm is 2 but 3 tops for HSA. But if you have an expandable oval when you expand get more flashes. This ink loves it

[Colin]

Plastisol:

Depends on coverage area and how many solid areas are in the art - you may need more than the standard 1-2 flashes.  Again, it also depends on how Bright you want your print to look.  The owner here likes his prints very bright and clean.  This necessitates more flashes than most shops.  We have a 12 and 14 color press.

Also, when using Rutlands C3 system, there are many colors that like to "Dry Up' while printing wet-on-wet (they behave as if they are flashed/dry to the touch).  Rutlands solution is to make the ink "wetter" with plasticiser/detack.  That does not always work.... and it stinks....

HSA - I know some shops have managed to run very very hot pallets and do a lot of wet-on-wet printing (essentially flashing the ink from the board temp).  But if you have to stop for anything... you are hosed as those boards cool down.

[jvieira]

We do P+F+P+F+P all the time. Rarely do we do more than 2 or 3 colors so it works for us

[DannyGruninger]

Yes we use multiple flashes..... Typically our sim process jobs all run with 2 flashes....... Solid spot color stuff with large areas we have run up to 5 flashes on our oval before(we can put 10 flashes on our oval at once)..... All depends on the job but I would not say flashing is a band aid at all.... It's a tool that helps make prints look better and we take advantage of that whenever we can. Right now we are running white shirts with 2 flashes, why? Because our print looks cleaner/better and it runs smoother. All depends on the job for us here though but we flash a good amount depending on art.