auto reclaim systems

[jvanick]

as we continue to automate other things around the shop, reclaim is one of the last major areas.  I'd rather employ awesome press people and artists than a screen cleaner or coater.  Plus, at the rates we can afford to pay screen room people, we'll never get better than McDonalds quality.  If I can have the same guy (or heck, the press ops) send a screen down a belt and have it come out on the other side ready to dry and coat, while they're doing everything else, I've just won not only production, but more efficiency, and very likely more consistency.

That being said, the units I looked at have me concerned... we "de-haze" with ink remover after blowing the stencils out on each and every screen, and we degrease with directPrep2 on every screen.  I'll bet I can count on 1 hand how many pinholes we've had in the last year, and our mesh lasts 100's of cycles through reclaim before it fails, and still doesn't have anywhere near the staining I see some people having.  If I'm going to build or buy a machine to do this, it needs to run at the same quality, if not better, than a human.

[screenprintguy]

as we continue to automate other things around the shop, reclaim is one of the last major areas.  I'd rather employ awesome press people and artists than a screen cleaner or coater.  Plus, at the rates we can afford to pay screen room people, we'll never get better than McDonalds quality.  If I can have the same guy (or heck, the press ops) send a screen down a belt and have it come out on the other side ready to dry and coat, while they're doing everything else, I've just won not only production, but more efficiency, and very likely more consistency.

That being said, the units I looked at have me concerned... we "de-haze" with ink remover after blowing the stencils out on each and every screen, and we degrease with directPrep2 on every screen.  I'll bet I can count on 1 hand how many pinholes we've had in the last year, and our mesh lasts 100's of cycles through reclaim before it fails, and still doesn't have anywhere near the staining I see some people having.  If I'm going to build or buy a machine to do this, it needs to run at the same quality, if not better, than a human.

I did see , "in person", some nasty diry, inkee screens go into the 2 bay M&R automatic screen cleaning system, come out, zero "pepper", that's what I call little bits in the mesh lol, Zero haze or stains, and grease free when we were up at the old factory. At that time, they were experimenting with a mix of Easiway Supra, and 701. It was very very impressive, they were ready to be racked  to dry and be coated, not needing another rinse at all.

[ZooCity]

I have similar concerns to jvanick but what I've realized is that you could just run the screen through again if 1 in so many aren't up to snuff.  Easy protocol there.   I bet staining would be greatly diminished since you wouldn't have any screens piling up, they'd be getting cleaned immediately after press runs. 

The ideal for me is full reclaim, degrease and dry with the unit dumping screens into the coating/screen area.

[bimmridder]

I'm not smart enough to figure out how to post a link here, but check out the Dane video on youtube. It has an automated system the reclaims, dries, coats, images, develops, and dries. I could handle something like that. $$$$

[mimosatexas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSdXPqQ9mug

[bimmridder]

That's part of it. Then it does imaging, developing and drying. Thanks though. Someday I'll learn that stuff.

[jvanick]

that wiper thing on the coater troughs is cool!

[mimosatexas]

I thought the same thing.  That has always been one of those things I wondered about with the auto coaters since I know if I am coating a bunch of screens at once I occasionally have to wipe of a bit of gunk on the edge of my coater.

[zanegun08]

So is anyone that has an auto reclaimer actually getting clean screens ready to coat out the end of the machine?

We have an IT (Image Technologies) reclaimer, and since it doesn't fully reclaim all the emulsion, we aren't degreasing in the unit, so we do a post emulsion and degrease,

So my question is, is anyone who is running water base screens with hardener or an emulsion that holds up to long water base runs getting fully reclaimed, ready to coat screens at the end of their machine?

[Colin]

Zane:

Are you pre soaking the screens in a dip tank with emulsion remover?

[jsheridan]

So my question is, is anyone who is running water base screens with hardener or an emulsion that holds up to long water base runs getting fully reclaimed, ready to coat screens at the end of their machine?

If I had a machine, I would not expect that out of it. Hardened screens do require  more process time. Get a dip tank and let em soak before going into the machine.

[ZooCity]

Our Ryonet rep gave us a really nice offer awhile back on a lotus holland system and the fact we use hardened, highly water resistant emulsion was brought up. 

The key with any of the systems seems to be to run it at the appropriate speed with the right chemicals.  This is probably even more important with resistant screens. 

If that still isn't working, they recommend running the screen through twice.  I actually kind of like that idea, keeps it very simple if not annoying. 

But I am with others, dip tank prior to auto reclaim has got to be the way to go for water resistant screens.  And why not?  It's not really adding a big step.  If you kept the tank chem warm and agitated it would probably make that auto reclaim unit fly.  Another thing about water resistant screens is they don't slough off in the dip tank typically so no worries there. You might even save space and stages on the unit.  Like, if you used a chem in the dip that primarily attacked emulsion in the tanks and then....

auto reclaim for: press wash to strip emulsion and some ink > ink/stain removal/wash > degrease/rinse > dry 

I think that most of the auto units are setup for plastisol emulsions which melt right off.  A wb heavy shop should probably re-think the system.