Squeegee marks on garments

[Homer]

yup, especially with these older machines that work on one set of valves....been my bitch for years now zoo.....

[MrBreeze]

We ran a job the other day for Neiman Marcus on black ladies scoop necks the employees are wearing for a special sales week.  Even on black that nasty rectangle squeegee mark was visible on every shirt.  Haven't gotten a call from them yet.  Got my fingers crossed.  I think a quick hit of steam as they come off the belt sounds like a great idea.

[ZooCity]

yup, especially with these older machines that work on one set of valves....been my bitch for years now zoo.....

I imagine a more modern print head that drops when ready to print and then immediately raises at the end of the stroke would mitigate this quite a bit.   

The ideal fix might be a modernized press where you could set the blade to start above the image at a low blade pressure and increase up to full pressure at the image area then do the reverse back off gradually behind the image.  It would require some lead in/out room (good for printing anyways in most cases) but it would at least make the pressure marks a smooth transition v. the abrupt lines.  Could be as simple as a little regulator before the choppers set to run on a delay that's dictated by the squeegee speed setting.

[ebscreen]

Slightly leaky chop cylinders will do exactly what you're describing.

What duro you printing WB with Chris?

[ZooCity]

60/90/60 or Jack with the bevel side....so far, still testing/experimenting but both these blades have been pretty solid so far. 

We might have got mixed up here though?- last post was describing a press that could regulate the pressure on lead in/out to mitigate the pressure mark, not an issue I'm seeing.  Or do you mean a leaky chop could exacerbate the garment marks issue?

[ebscreen]

I mean a slightly leaky cylinder will do exactly what you are looking for with the pressure change on in/out.
It'll take a a half second to build pressure, mitigating pressure marks, at least on the starting line.

[Inkworks]

Silly question, but is it actually marks from the ends of the squeegees? or the edge of the platens?

[ZooCity]

I mean a slightly leaky cylinder will do exactly what you are looking for with the pressure change on in/out.
It'll take a a half second to build pressure, mitigating pressure marks, at least on the starting line.

hmmmm....that's intriguing. 

inkworks, it's from the blade primarily though I'm sure if the blade were larger than the platen that would play in.  We start and end our stroke on the platen and never use a squeegee wider than the platen.

[Inkworks]

That's wierd, I've found with WB/DC I use more squeegee angle and equal or less pressure than with plastisol, but then I'm just a newbie with it. We also use Image Technologies WB/DC ink and it's very runny compared to other brands. Runny ink seems to make sense to me when penetration is the goal.