Yay or Nay - New Manual Squeegee Design

[Action1]

Hello everyone. Yay or Nay on this new type of manual squeegee? We are implementing this into our manual roller squeegees and thought that it may have a broader appeal.  The way the grips are angled maximizes your strength and control.

Thank you in advance for any and all of your feedback.

Erik Naftal
Action Engineering

[Frog]

I am sure that someone has tried these out and am curious if they were tested with both pushing and pulling.

[Shanarchy]

My immediate reaction was hell no. But after looking at it more, it could work.

Thinking out loud...

Is the hand position more ergonomic than the traditional way we hold squeegees

Will it allow you the same control to apply downward force in both directions (push and pull)

Is the hand grips adjustable, and if not will that position be comfortable/ideal for all people

Can you grip them, print, pop it back, in the screen, and unload shirt just as quick as a conventional squeegee

Will this be a lot heavier than a standard squeegee

[abchung]

It is similar to this.

http://www.advancedscreenprintsupply.com/ez-grip-squeegee-handle-details.html

[Action1]

My immediate reaction was hell no. But after looking at it more, it could work.

Thinking out loud...

Is the hand position more ergonomic than the traditional way we hold squeegees

Will it allow you the same control to apply downward force in both directions (push and pull)

Is the hand grips adjustable, and if not will that position be comfortable/ideal for all people

Can you grip them, print, pop it back, in the screen, and unload shirt just as quick as a conventional squeegee

Will this be a lot heavier than a standard squeegee

Hello & thank you for jumping in. Firstly - the weight is going to be a bit more  , but not by much. I'm showing a weight of around 2.25 lbs.
I do think that the handle position is more ergonomic. It uses different muscles and more of them. With the traditional way, it's mostly focused on the forearms and shoulders. The newer style will incorporate many more of your core muscles and not tire you as quickly.

It will allow for the same control of the downward force and even give you more because of the additional muscles employed.
The handle angle is not adjustable and probably won't be.

[Action1]

It is similar to this.

http://www.advancedscreenprintsupply.com/ez-grip-squeegee-handle-details.html

I never saw this - thanks.

[jvanick]

if you were to make these with clamps that could hold onto the auto squeegee holders (M&R style) I'd love to give them a try.

we have many times here just held the auto squeegees as they were the same color and it saved messing up a manual squeegee to get a few prints done.

Heck, just a standard handle that could hold the M&R style squeegees would be cool.

[AAMike]

I would really have to try it first. Since I pull, when I back flood I use one hand to hold the screen off the board and one back flooding. With that being said I haven't manually printed in a good bit.

[Action1]

if you were to make these with clamps that could hold onto the auto squeegee holders (M&R style) I'd love to give them a try.

we have many times here just held the auto squeegees as they were the same color and it saved messing up a manual squeegee to get a few prints done.

Heck, just a standard handle that could hold the M&R style squeegees would be cool.

We discussed that here - But I think it would end up being too heavy.  I'll give more thought to the adapter though.

[3Deep]

Just from looking at this what would be the benefit of having those handles?  I'm thinking that trying to use those handles would be kind of bad on the wrist, wouldn't mine trying one just to see how it feels.

[larryk]

I'm thinking if you made the grips more like pistol grips or a steering wheel the job would be a lot more fun..... maybe a set of ape hangers for the biker boys out there..... LOL

[Mr Tees!!]

...Twice a year in the summer, we run an event job that requires a full six colors on our 6C Diamondback. the image has a full underbase, which we run (revolver) on head six, and we have  a flash on the unload station. Now, I usually run a roller over any white we print, but we obviously didnt have a head open for it in this situation. This last time, on a whim, I grabbed the roller squeegee and ran it over the print (no smoothing screen, just the roller itself) after the flash by hand, and it worked pretty good!! I used it for the whole run (600+) with no issues, but my hands were not happy about holding the clamping area of the roller. I zip-tied some old bicycle grips around the area, and that helped a little, but it still wasnt comfortable by any means.

...Is this thing something that is maybe ready for "beta testing"? I am running the second of these jobs on wed-thur /13-14th of this month, and would be glad to try it out if you want some real-world feedback. Im in GA too, if that helps. Erik, PM me if this is something that interests you and maybe we can work out some kinda deal. We could get some video of using it or something like that.

[tpitman]

Nope. Looks like too much stress on your wrists. I think you get better control and pressure using your forearms and palms with a regular squeegie and a push stroke.

[lrsbranding]

I always push the squeegee. Usually with one hand and the squeegee angle towards me. However, if I'm printing halftones and having dot gain problems I'll angle the squeegee away from me using both hands and push. It get stressful on the thumbs. I could see that squeegee with the angle in the handles working good for that application.

[Orion]

Cool concept. The real feedback you seek will be when you take her to a trade show and let printers take it for a test drive.