"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
We've rarely been able to print at 30, but considering most shops print white ink very slowly, 3-6"/sec, we print white at 10-14"/sec and some other inks will shear at 20-25. Triple duros are great, but you can print faster with the smiling jacks. It's not a ton faster but it's noticeable. With regular spot colors on lights, you should be at 10-20"/sec and if you're not already printing at 8-12 with your white, go ahead and try to increase your squeegee speed. You might have to increase print pressure slightly as you increase print speed so you have to balance those two parameters to get the most opacity.
Zoo, I can't wait until you get an auto, I think you need to buy one this year.
I was lucky to discover how print speed can affect ink deposit/opacity when I first met Mr. Clarke at the ISS in Ft. Worth a few years back and I took home a few of his smiling jack blades. I wish I would have known something other than slow=more ink, fast=less ink much sooner in my printing career but just like every other parameter and variable, I learned a little at a time. I also started reading anything I could find from Joe and it was a lot like when I discovered Bill's articles and it opened up a lot more info that I could use to my advantage. It was one of the last print parameters that I found had a profound influence in maximizing an inks opacity. I had always been told that slower squeegee speed equals more ink, but just because we deposit a large amount of ink, doesn't mean the print will look good or be opaque. I know I'm not saying anything that a lot of us don't already know, but it might help some of the pups that haven't learned this yet, but printing faster helps in shearing the ink on top of the garment, possibly depositing less ink but maximizing opacity.
gilligan, how is the new expo unit working out for you?