screen printing > Equipment

Measuring shirt temp?

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yorkie:
Get onto your knees and watch for the smoke. The smoke is a signal which indicated when the ink is hot enough to smoke, which "coincidentally" is the same temperature needed to cure.

I have a 4 foot dryer, the first 3 feet have heating elements and the 4th is blank. Looking into my dryer, the shirt needs to be smoking during the 3rd heating chamber. If there is smoke on the first, the dryer is too hot. Considerable smoking at the second is still hotter than needed. If its smoking before the forth, it is too late.

On my dryer, the shirt is already cooling in the 4th foot, so it is all but finished smoking when it comes out of the dryer. The dryer exhaust contains the vast majority of the smoke. For dryers without a cooldown section, i'd have the shirts come out smoking.

heat can be controlled either by dryer temperature or speed. If the smoke is hitting too early, you can either turn up the speed to increase production or turn down the dryer temperature to save energy costs.

My dryer is a brown, which come with (pc style) cooling fans on the exit path of the dryer. We use a pole fan following  the flash dryer.

The issue might just be you have sensitive hands. They make cooking gloves which allow working at oven temperatures. There is no shame in using the protective equipment. The shirts coming out of the dryer will be hot.

The cool new Chef's Planet Oven Glove is a heat and flame resistant five-fingered glove that makes it much easier to grip and handle pans going in and out of the oven, compared to a traditional oven mitt. This seamless glove features a DuPont Nomex outer lining that can withstand temperatures up to 500? F (260? C), has a comfortable double knit cotton inner lining and fits great on both righties and lefties. Best of all, they kind of look like big old cartoon gloves!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A3J4IQ?ie=UTF8&tag=201022-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000A3J4IQ

tonypep:
OK heres my take.....yes donut probes are the most accurate but yes really intended for longer dryers 10 to 12 ft. They will "tell the story" as to what is really happening in the dryer and can identify cool spots if they are present. Some gas dryers have IR "bump" panels in the front and (less frequently) in the rear exit section. Often on older dryers this is one of the first elements to go.....the donut probe will identify this problem. Also for discharge and density printing the are quite helpful. Density gels for example can melt and
"fall" if overheated.
Can't find a picture but in SC I had a bunch of dryers with short outfeeds and had the "blistering" problem.
Had my maintenance man hang two box fans from the ceiling; securing the base of the fans to the top of the dryer with the fans angling away from the exit chamber. Worked perfect and disperses discharge and poly fumes as a bonus. They still use them today I believe.

GraphicDisorder:
I have a Boomerang, it does have a short exit chamber. 

ebscreen:
Andy's correct in that the same donut can be used with any thermometer with the correct
(K-type I think) thermocouple input. Unfortunately the donuts are unique to screen printing
and priced as such.

Also, though I'm relatively new to the gas dryer world, I agree with the person that thinks
that a long gas dryer "saturates" the garments with heat. That's been my impression as well.

sportsshoppe:
I too do the pull test but I do it the next day... Have pulled them especially white after they cool and not tears but the next morning and it may pull apart. Have you ever tested some of the Wal Mart shirts???? I wonder sometimes if we do not go overboard but I see shirts I have printed 5 years ago still walking around town and looking good. I use test strips on my dryer and it is a monster ( electric 220 3-phase ) I guess it is 12' of heating and about 5' wide ( Pheonix Turbo ). I have re-wired some of the elements and turned off the temp adj. it stays on. I adjust the speed of the belt for the prints that need less heat. I check it every morning....Fuses do go out :(

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