Platens - with or without tape?

[jvanick]

Image mate (chromaline?) Textac and Xenon Xentak... both seem to work the same...

Today we ran Gildan 5000's... at least 500 shirts before retacking...

Honestly warming our platens at least at the start of the day helps so much with printing and stickiness that we just deal with it.

[Inkworks]

We do preheat, just not 20 minutes. Right now the shop is 55F overnight and up to 63F 1/2 before works starts. I'll look into a few of the adhesives you recommend, I'd love to ditch the sprays.

[stitches4815]

I took the plunge almost two years ago with the Textac.  That was probably the smartest thing I have done in a long time.  I am no longer breathing in that aerosol adhesives, it is not getting all over my equipment, machinery, floor, walls.....  When it comes to removing the tape from my boards I just put them under the flash and warm them up.  The tape pulls off nice and easy.

[BorisB]

I know it's an old topic, but it my issue is new.  And all written in this thread hasn't made it any easier.
We use Tekmar TB-10 WB adhesive on bare Al pallets. Every two to three weeks we remove adhesive and lint completely with TB-Orange.
Using tape would/should simplify removal of old adhesive and lint. OK. This is to be tested.
But how do you operate between removal of tape or complete cleaning?

We scrub away lint with Scotch Brite  pad and water every day 2-3 times.  On most day we loose up to half an hour of production. This is procedure I would like to reduce/change/improve.

We print t-shirt most of the time, sweaters & Co make less than 10% of volume.

How do clean this accumulated lint? Does it affect your press downtime significantly?

I remember video by mooseman using hard brush and windex... Didn't work good over here.

[Screen Dan]

we use Tekmar TB-10 over here too.  We found that the best solvent to clean the tack and lint off with is denatured alcohol.

That said, we tape.  Hell, back when I was an operator my assistants and I would have tape races to see who could tape and trim faster.  Might not be a safe game what with all the razor blades in our hands, but on a 12/10 Gauntlet 2 a full tape change took maybe 10 minutes, tops.  Depending on how heavy your hand is with the spray tack they could last for up to a week...though my 2nd shift at the time went bonkers with the spray, so, I usually changed it two or three times a week.  As long as it isn't flashed to death, dribbled in press wash or left on for a month and a half it usually peeled right up very easily.

[IntegriTees]

I value my time. Taping the pallets saves me so much "money"