using the wrong dryer

[balloonguy]

Is anyone running discharge with a smaller (36" infrared) dryer? I have a vastex econored 2. Any ideas how to get the rate of drying to a livable pace? I tried a few yesterday and it was painful. I think we were doing less than 20 shirts an hour. Is there a way to get that up? Or do I need a real dryer before I screw around any more?
Thanks,
Matt

[ebscreen]

Width is not so important as heated length.

We use to run a MaxiCure with 6' of heat at about 200/hr, maybe a little more.

You can run them through twice, though once the discharge process is started, it's best to keep
it rollin.

[Printhouse]

I just moves up to the econored 54 so I could slow my belt speed down and still keep production up.  I did 200 shirts in less than an hour on it yesterday with each tee timed out at 2 minute 30 seconds in the dryer.  I parked my 36  inch to the side due to getting stalled at the dryer.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Its painfully slow using infrared without forced air. Even with forced air it is slow. If the design permits I put the shirts on the belt side by side otherwise I just suck it up and wait.

[BorisB]

Matt,

15 years ago we used to cure discharge ink with heat press. 10 sec. at 180deg C was needed. ok, we had big, well vented room. it should be unhealthy practice to do this. no health problems occured. But we only did only 10000-15000 prints this way. main reason for this was that prints looked nicer & you spot problems immediately, not until T-shirts come out of dryer.

[ZooCity]

You know, I always thought it would be smart for Vastex to sell a chamber extension specifically for this purpose.  One with real forced, hot, air and exhaust- not a blower fan connected to a hole in the side of the dryer chamber. Those dryers are dirt simple to upgrade and extend, seems like a no-brainer.

If space is a concern, those return belt models out there that run the garments twice through the gas chamber look pretty handy to me.  Though I wonder if the discharge fumes from the Ts on the bottom section of the run waft up through the top belt section and affect those garments?

We approached this quandry by picking up an old TexAir for it's massive, hot forced air section.  We don't need a dryer of this capacity running full tilt with the IR panels on for a manual shop but it was the cheapest option to get that much forced air.  Can't recommend it yet as we won't be running it until next week at earliest but I'll report back then. 

BaumanB-  you're right, that sounds nuts curing discharge with a heat press.  Glad to hear no one got sick or anything although I would imagine you often don't see the effects of exposure like this until later down the road. 

I saw a little bottle of Jantex discharge activator at the local university's art supply section with instructions to iron the print to cure it.  I was so disgusted by this that I decided not to even consider the brand of ink for our shop.  I thought that was really irresponsible of the company to recommend hobby users to cure disc in their home with an iron, leaning right over it like that. 

[screenxpress]

I have a Vastex Econored 2 and for discharge, I run the speed on 5 (painfully slow), panels height at 3 1/2 inches, and heat temp at 500.

Oh, and even then, I have run back through on some (can tell the discharge is not complete)

For real production, a different dryer would probably be best.

[jason-23]

You know, I always thought it would be smart for Vastex to sell a chamber extension specifically for this purpose.  One with real forced, hot, air and exhaust- not a blower fan connected to a hole in the side of the dryer chamber. Those dryers are dirt simple to upgrade and extend, seems like a no-brainer.

If space is a concern, those return belt models out there that run the garments twice through the gas chamber look pretty handy to me.  Though I wonder if the discharge fumes from the Ts on the bottom section of the run waft up through the top belt section and affect those garments?

We approached this quandry by picking up an old TexAir for it's massive, hot forced air section.  We don't need a dryer of this capacity running full tilt with the IR panels on for a manual shop but it was the cheapest option to get that much forced air.  Can't recommend it yet as we won't be running it until next week at earliest but I'll report back then. 

BaumanB-  you're right, that sounds nuts curing discharge with a heat press.  Glad to hear no one got sick or anything although I would imagine you often don't see the effects of exposure like this until later down the road. 

I saw a little bottle of Jantex discharge activator at the local university's art supply section with instructions to iron the print to cure it.  I was so disgusted by this that I decided not to even consider the brand of ink for our shop.  I thought that was really irresponsible of the company to recommend hobby users to cure disc in their home with an iron, leaning right over it like that.

I was under the impression that you can extend vastex dryers and add more units and belts, thats one of the reasons i bought it in the first other than it fit in a garage nicely.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Yes you can add on to Vastex dryers but they still don't offer any type of airflow.

[jason-23]

My dryer has a scrub dryer switch, I've never used it and really don't know what it's for.

[Tagless Threads]

From experience you need at least 8ft of chamber with gas to be efficient with discharge if your using an auto.

[Binkspot]

Yes you can add on to Vastex dryers but they still don't offer any type of airflow.

Our Econored II 54"  has "Scrub Air" which recirculates the air in the chamber. Haven't tried discharge yet but works on WB.