80,000 white shirts flash or no flash.

[tonypep]

And, please document with pics some of the end products, and your pre-press differences. A visual comparo could be valuable for all. (this assumes that you are not bound to secrecy as Tony was)

Was is the operative word. Here to help and desperate with job decisions so....lets help eachother

[bimmridder]

How did it go today Tony?

[tonypep]

And, please document with pics some of the end products, and your pre-press differences. A visual comparo could be valuable for all. (this assumes that you are not bound to secrecy as Tony was)

[Dottonedan]

I appreciate everybody's input thank you very much. I will be watching as I have been for the last few days while also cringing I might say.

 We did however manage to crank on a 10,000 piece order at 90 doz or 1080 per hour. One color black ink on light ox. Very fast running.  That was on the M&R press maxed out.  Same design on the Anatol. The Anatol was doing 70 dozen an hour maxed out.

[Orion]

That was on the M&R press maxed out.  Same design on the Anatol. The Anatol was doing 70 dozen an hour maxed out.

What?... another shop besides ours runs blue and red presses. Have they modified the red press side clamps so that a tri-loc can be used?

[dirkdiggler]

We never run black first, ever...but if a flash helps, use it, that's why its there.  I always use ours on every job.  Like mentioned it keeps the glue working, assuming you are using waterbase glue, if your not, change that first.

[Lizard]

On a large run of white shirts we would run a clear base or thinned down white base, top colors on high mesh, then (we have a saying in the shop) black last matters. That way you don't have to stop for lint, your shirt looks great for many laundry cycles and overall ink cost is much lower.  Plus you only have to watch your base and black inks, other colors last much longer.

[Sbrem]

We never run black first, ever...but if a flash helps, use it, that's why its there.  I always use ours on every job.  Like mentioned it keeps the glue working, assuming you are using waterbase glue, if your not, change that first.

We run black first all the time, but, it would be a flat, no half-tones image, then we print white after that, then flash and print the top colors. But if half-tones are there, then we prefer our black near or at the end...

Steve

[Dottonedan]

That was on the M&R press maxed out.  Same design on the Anatol. The Anatol was doing 70 dozen an hour maxed out.

What?... another shop besides ours runs blue and red presses. Have they modified the red press side clamps so that a tri-loc can be used?

Yes, that's correct.  Exact same.

[Dottonedan]

  As you can see some do some don't some do it in different ways it's all a matter and how you prepare the yard to print properly for me my preference is the not flash at all so if I can do the separations to where I don't have to flash and I'm not getting a lot of build up and then pick up it's all the better. That's just my thought,and how I've  tried to do it most times.  I've set the art up to work in many different ways before but mostly wet on wet for Whitey's. We will be finding out on this one next week.

[Frog]

  As you can see some do some don't some do it in different ways it's all a matter and how you prepare the yard to print properly for me my preference is the not flash at all so if I can do the separations to where I don't have to flash and I'm not getting a lot of build up and then pick up it's all the better. That's just my thought,and how I've  tried to do it most times.  I've set the art up to work in many different ways before but mostly wet on wet for Whitey's. We will be finding out on this one next week.

This has to be voice to text, right?

[alan802]

Spot color black, print 1st 95% of the time.  Halftones involved then we will put the black wherever it needs to be to yield the best print.  Might be the 1st down on a sim process or might be the last or anywhere in between.  We use a black that doesn't build up under normal shop temps and print it down 1st all the time to give us more freedom with the rest of the print order.  If you have a crappy black ink or you can't step on the black for whatever reason then it's not a good idea to print black early.  But I would keep an open mind about print order and not get into never adjusting things such as this.  I can't tell you how many times we've kept from doing revolver mode simply because we printed black 1st or early on a print run.  Hundreds of labor hours over the years have been saved by going against the grain.  One of the 1st lessons I learned from an old salty screen printer was to always print black last and unfortunately it took 3 or 4 years for me to go against that and reap the benefits.  Of course quality is number one but we haven't had many instances where the quality was affected negatively with black going down early, most of the time it adds to the print quality.

[ZooCity]

Man, I wish we could print black first.  Our pre-press and reg is tight enough to do it on so many jobs but the issue we have is our quartz flash will burn the garment to a crisp in the black ink area before the ub gets flashed. 

On 80k I agree, do what you gotta do for uninterrupted production. 

That said, if you electrical costs are in a certain range it may be beneficial to 86 flashing.  Also reduces heat, bulb wear, etc. but jvanick's mention of keeping the platens warm is real not just for maintaining tack but wb/dc and especially hsa inks benefit from it.  But we will run most jobs no flash if it's not getting in the way with production.

I like the suggestion with the clear base, 1st down.  That's super smart, saves ink, grabs lint, prevents fibrilation etc.  Rutland makes an awesome ink for this.

[ol man]

Man, I wish we could print black first.  Our pre-press and reg is tight enough to do it on so many jobs but the issue we have is our quartz flash will burn the garment to a crisp in the black ink area before the ub gets flashed. 

On 80k I agree, do what you gotta do for uninterrupted production. 

That said, if you electrical costs are in a certain range it may be beneficial to 86 flashing.  Also reduces heat, bulb wear, etc. but jvanick's mention of keeping the platens warm is real not just for maintaining tack but wb/dc and especially hsa inks benefit from it.  But we will run most jobs no flash if it's not getting in the way with production.

I like the suggestion with the clear base, 1st down.  That's super smart, saves ink, grabs lint, prevents fibrilation etc.  Rutland makes an awesome ink for this.

when we got our new press and quartz flash - we experienced the same thing -- burn that black ink up!...which sucked because im a huge fan of black first... had a job that was sepped for black first, we couldnt get the print to match the controll sample any other way , so we let those palletes get stupid hot, and it worked like a charm...

[DannyGruninger]

Man, I wish we could print black first.  Our pre-press and reg is tight enough to do it on so many jobs but the issue we have is our quartz flash will burn the garment to a crisp in the black ink area before the ub gets flashed. 

THIS!!!! is why we rarely ever print black first..... I'd love to know how alan and these guys are printing tri blends/garments prone to scortching with black first. I have watched certain garments go up in smoke with black being flashed prior to the white being gelled. 

I suppose it goes back to what works for some doesn't work for all