Realistic Screen Reclaiming Breakages

[cclaud3]

Yeah all 3 people have been pretty consistent on busting. Must be bad luck in hiring.
They are using a combo of ROQ spatulas & quick cleanup cards. No metal or sharp ink cleanup tools.
Busting is happening on edges and in open areas. Edge seems to be from spastic loading into screens racks. I am a sounding like a broken record with them about slowing down.

I have requested if they ever see a hole in the mesh before they start carding ink out to let me know. The (open area) holes always appears after pressure washer use.

Haven't seen any an rough squeegee/floodbar handling while they are pulling screens out of press.

Really seems like I have a spree of people with a lack of attention to detail. I am on the production floor with them all day.

[kingscreen]

If my employees were busting 1-3 screens every reclaim session, there would be some serious retraining.  If it continued, they would be let go. Those are absurd numbers in my opinion. We have a system for cleaning and reclaiming screens that is strictly forbidden to be differed from. The first thing we tell people when training for cleaning and reclaiming is ?Let the chemicals do the work?. Rough scrubbing and spraying is just not necessary.
First it sounds like it may be a training issue. Second is that they just don?t care. I can?t have any crew member in my staff that just doesn?t care. In my shop, we might bust 1 screen every 200-300 reclaimed. And that?s usually due to heavy handed excess ink scraping (rushing).

[Doug S]

Like Pierre, we use the cardboard cleanup cards as well as these that you can find at Kroger.  They don't bend and don't have sharp corners.  Plus they are very easy to clean.

[Maxie]

I cannot get cards locally so I took a sample to a paper supplier.
Found a similar weight card in sheets and we cut a few thousand at a time.
Costs almost nothing per card.

[whitewater]

Are these the Shurloc Panels?

[mk162]

we use metal putty knives, but we round the corners.  you can also buff the edges to take any sharpness off.  They work great.

I tried cleanup cards...I thought they were the worst thing I had ever used for ink.  I love them for emulsion and cleaning the scoop coater.

[cclaud3]

Are these the Shurloc Panels?

Yes. Standard statics are a little more forgiving but I can reclaim without busting these shurlocs.

I am training these individuals and can't imagine being any more thorough with them.
We are only putting 4 screens in at a time, the tank can hold 5 or 6.

They must be busting while putting them into the tank and/or while pressure washing. While I watch I never see any busting. Maybe I'll look into a camera system.

So, I am now confirming that it is absurd to bust this many. I mean as an owner I would never bust this many, if shop assistants/reclaimers broke this many.

[blue moon]

Are these the Shurloc Panels?

Yes. Standard statics are a little more forgiving but I can reclaim without busting these shurlocs.

I am training these individuals and can't imagine being any more thorough with them.
We are only putting 4 screens in at a time, the tank can hold 5 or 6.

They must be busting while putting them into the tank and/or while pressure washing. While I watch I never see any busting. Maybe I'll look into a camera system.

So, I am now confirming that it is absurd to bust this many. I mean as an owner I would never bust this many, if shop assistants/reclaimers broke this many.

loading multiple at a time into the tank is asking for trouble (and you are finding it). EZ panels of S mesh are super sensitive. if you bump a frame against the panel while pulling it into the tank, it will break during pressure washing. we had to load one at a time (into the tank) for several years until they learned how to do it properly.

pierre

[CBCB]

Does anyone track the number of runs a screen had? Any idea of the age of the screens?

Seems really high. But we?ve been busting a lot lately too.


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[mimosatexas]

We have had a run of breaks too, but all of them are on press, and the holes develop in the exposed mesh Of the image while on press, then they pop while on press or while waiting for reclaim. Almost wondering if something in our ink is causing the pops, like clumps of pigment or something. 90% of holes are on screens used with white ink.

[mooseman]

I have my father with me for a couple hours every day. His primary job is reclaim . In about two years he has popped about 4 screens.
We have about 50% S mesh balance is 156 to 230 .
I should mention my father is 88 years old left hand impared from stroke, low vision.
Here are my key elements that keep me from remeshing screens.
The scrub pad is always clean never allow embedded emulsion to dry and harden.
Pressure washer is never used with a concentrated  pin point stream
Pressure washer is never held  closer than @ 6 inches from the screen.
My father is on a timer he waits 12 minutes from the last scrub to pressure washer, he usually cycles 4 -6 screens at a time so the dwell time overall is in most cases greater than 12 minutes.
Lastly most important when I recoat I inspect the mesh closely. ANY pin holes etc are set aside and treated with either a patch of fine mesh and 5 minute epoxy and a trip through the vacuum blanket to squeeze the patch and mesh to super smooth and thin.
On smaller holes I simply spread a little 5 minute epoxy  in a circular pattern all around the the hole .

This seems to work I break more screens from bumping ,dropping etc than from reclaim.
Mooseman

[whitewater]

Are these the Shurloc Panels?

Yes. Standard statics are a little more forgiving but I can reclaim without busting these shurlocs.

I am training these individuals and can't imagine being any more thorough with them.
We are only putting 4 screens in at a time, the tank can hold 5 or 6.

They must be busting while putting them into the tank and/or while pressure washing. While I watch I never see any busting. Maybe I'll look into a camera system.

So, I am now confirming that it is absurd to bust this many. I mean as an owner I would never bust this many, if shop assistants/reclaimers broke this many.

We have the shurloc panels, I have 25 frames sitting off to the side. Because we develop holes in the open areas. I can not figure it out why they develop there. It seems to only be the shurlocs, since we have statics that do not get the holes. I watch the reclaim guys and they are doing nothing out of the ordinary.

I thought maybe it was the flood bar, maybe the guys nicked it somehow, but bought some new ones. Still can not figure it out.

A while ago I called them and they said to spray something over it, maybe a spray with baking soda? I cannot quite remember, they said that could cause the mesh breakdown. All of my shurlocs had holes in them by that time so I have not tried it.. but like I said my statics are fine.

[DCSP John]

do you use a dip tank?
sharp corner edges on Shurlocs can put holes in mesh when
dipping multiples at the same time. We've been there.
Only takes bump and the mesh can get knicked.

John

[whitewater]

we don't use a dip tank.

[blue moon]

Are these the Shurloc Panels?

Yes. Standard statics are a little more forgiving but I can reclaim without busting these shurlocs.

I am training these individuals and can't imagine being any more thorough with them.
We are only putting 4 screens in at a time, the tank can hold 5 or 6.

They must be busting while putting them into the tank and/or while pressure washing. While I watch I never see any busting. Maybe I'll look into a camera system.

So, I am now confirming that it is absurd to bust this many. I mean as an owner I would never bust this many, if shop assistants/reclaimers broke this many.

We have the shurloc panels, I have 25 frames sitting off to the side. Because we develop holes in the open areas. I can not figure it out why they develop there. It seems to only be the shurlocs, since we have statics that do not get the holes. I watch the reclaim guys and they are doing nothing out of the ordinary.

I thought maybe it was the flood bar, maybe the guys nicked it somehow, but bought some new ones. Still can not figure it out.

A while ago I called them and they said to spray something over it, maybe a spray with baking soda? I cannot quite remember, they said that could cause the mesh breakdown. All of my shurlocs had holes in them by that time so I have not tried it.. but like I said my statics are fine.

sharp corners on the inking tools will cause holes too. keep an eye on what you are doing while adding or removing ink from the screens.
EZ frames are more sensitive as they are tighter than statics. Additionally, most of our EZ frames are S mesh which is very sensitive.

pierre