I saw a post a few days that I meant to respond to. I thought it best to present this information in our area. Thank you again to our friends at TSB for providing the ability to share this information.
The Advantages of using Soft Top Pallet Rubber
Soft Top Pallet Rubber is known to have been used on Textile Printing pallets since the beginning of the current industry. It is probable that similar materials have been used for the same benefits for many years, even perhaps centuries before.
There are numerous benefits to using Soft Top Rubber
• Normalization of Pressure, Angle, & Speed - Slight changes in the pressure, angle, & speed of the squeegee stroke causes inconsistent print quality. The compression and resilience properties of the rubber act to normalize these slight variances and result in a clean, concise, consistent print piece after piece.
• Better Substrate Penetration. Another benefit of the resilience property of the rubber is to gain better penetration into whatever type of textile material is being printed. When the squeegee presses into the substrate, the substrate then stretches slightly against the rubber. This opens the weave and allows easier flow.
• Less Work/ Pressure Required i.e.…Less wear on hands, arms and Mechanisms. A further result of the above benefit. Because the material easily flexes to allow penetration, you no longer have to press into it as hard.
• Pallets Stay Warm When Flashing. The Thermal properties of this material are matched to the typical flashing requirements of our industry. It will stand up to numerous years of flashing on automatic printers for years. The rubber traps the heat in. If you apply heat to a solid aluminum pallet and a rubber coated pallet, the rubberized pallet will stay hot longer. This means that you have to supply less heat the next time around to bring it up the temperature you need
• Reduces Screen Wear/ Emulsion breakdown – Screens actually last longer. Less Pinholes, less wear on the mesh.
We are advocates of Soft Top Pallet Rubber. However, we are also suppliers of this material and certainly prone to suspicion as an advocate. Therefore, don’t just take our word for it. Ask your fellow screen printers if you have any need for additional confirmation by posting a message on the theshirtboard.com website message boards.
To answer a question we are asked often from owners of machines that use honeycomb aluminum – These are MHM, Sroque, and other brands - We have manufactured 1000's of honeycomb aluminum and soft top rubber pallets and shipped them around the world for over twenty years. Some of the best known and largest printers in the world prefer the honeycomb with a soft top rubber. As well, we provide honeycomb and soft top rubber pallets directly to a number of machine makers around the world. There are many advantages to using soft top rubber as a printing surface. It will improve your print quality, your control, & your flash times are reduced. Planar agreement between your pallet, your screen, and the squeegee vector is critical to all aspects of setup, production, and the quality of your screen printing. The slightly compressive quality of the rubber mitigates inaccuracies in your machines setup. Additionally, the rubber is a thermal insulator and reflects the flash heat thereby focusing the heat on the print and gelling the ink quicker.
The only disadvantage to it is that it's not free & adds to the cost of your pallets. These positive qualities are the reasons the number one selling machine manufacturer in the world uses it.
