auto flood bar

[Gabe]

Hi teammates i got a silly question
how much distance between the flood bar and the mesh is the ideal for printing
in a auto press?
Gabe

[blue moon]

Hey Gabe,

we actually do a "hard flood". That's when you push the ink into the mesh with the floodbar. In order to do it, we have the floodbar set up just PAST the point of touching.

pierre

[Gabe]

you mean like a milimeter past the point of barely kissing the mesh
in all mesh counts
thank you Blue
Gabe

[Sbrem]

Hi Gabe, the concept is to fill the "well" with ink, then shear it off with the squeegee. So, as Pierre says, a "hard flood"; otherwise, your squeegee is doing that instead of the floodbar. Now, this is about plasitsols; with thin air dry types of inks for signage or posters, if you hard flood, the ink goes through and makes a pretty bad print. Hope this helps.

Steve

[tpitman]

Speaking of floodbars, does anyone know of "wings" that can be attached to standard flood bars, and where one might find them? My kid claims they have some clip-on appendages for their flood bars at the shop he works at.

[Binkspot]

I don't know if he is talking about the M&R Ink traps. We use them and they attach to the squeegee.

[tpitman]

I don't know if he is talking about the M&R Ink traps. We use them and they attach to the squeegee.

Just did a google search. That looks like what he was talking about, though I thought he said they attached to the floodbar. Regardless, I waste a lot of time carding ink out of the edges when I work on an auto.
Do they perform as they are advertised?
Thanks for the info.

[Inkworks]

No new auto these days should be sold without winged floodbars. No excuse for it anymore. Act. Eng. makes a good product.

[blue moon]

you mean like a milimeter past the point of barely kissing the mesh
in all mesh counts
thank you Blue
Gabe

yes, something like that. The tighter the mesh, less it has to go past it.

pierre

[Binkspot]

The traps are awesome IMO. They are spring loaded and float across the screen with each stroke channeling the ink back under the squeegee. Two things to note about them is they need to be kept clean so they don't bind and float nicely and if someone tapes a screen sloppy there is a chance it will grab the tape and pull it off or worse yet bind and pop a screen.

[RICK STEFANICK]

gabe a hard flood works great with standard plastisols.. we use less pressure when running waterbase and discharge wb. also if you run any high density, soft density and heavy gels almost no flood will get best results..

[Action1]

Speaking of floodbars, does anyone know of "wings" that can be attached to standard flood bars, and where one might find them? My kid claims they have some clip-on appendages for their flood bars at the shop he works at.

Hello - Our company has been manufacturing winged flood bars for use on automatic screen printing machinery since 1991. If you have never had one - your very First is 50% Off.
If you ask about them here I believe that you will get a favorable response to there use. Please see our website for more information - www.actionengineering.com

[broadway]

Speaking of floodbars, does anyone know of "wings" that can be attached to standard flood bars, and where one might find them? My kid claims they have some clip-on appendages for their flood bars at the shop he works at.

I have the yellow plastic wing attachments your are talking about. They came with my used Gauntlet (1996) when i bought it. I doubt if they are made anymore by m&r. They work just fine. You clip them on the ends and the clamps will hold them along with the flood bar. A little akward to clean and attach. The only back thing about them is you need 14 inch flood bars, not 16 inch. I agree no quality auto press should be sold without winged fllodbars.
Peter

[Printhouse]

Another silly question but seeing I just bought my first auto should I buy winged flood bars for every head?  I was planning on replacing mine anyways due to a little neglect.

[Printhouse]

Another question, when looking at flood bars and squeegee holders I see single notch or double notched.  I assume that this is just to make it easier to mount the clamps?  My American has single notch that appear to look like the m&r styling.