New type of dryer

[Frog]

This might give away my inexperience with wb and dc inks: since the  shirts are flipping print side down on the middle belt, that would mean that inks would need to be pretty far along the curing process by the end of belt 1 to prevent the print getting damaged or perhaps ink on the belt... so how much of an effect is all that extra dryer time on belt 2 and 3 having on the print and the tshirt?

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Unlike plastisols which "cure" at a certain temperature, waterbase inks require more like what we think of as "drying" by removing their water by evaporation.

Interestingly, at a hobby level, waterbased inks are quite user friendly as they can be dried with something as common as a hand iron.
Step up to production levels, and it's a whole new ball game with retentions tmes and forced air removing the moisture, something that a conventional minimal IR panel belt dryer may not be able to keep up with.
See this current thread for a great example.

[Maxie]

Adelco had one on display at FESPA this year.
It's not a new idea, just been produced again, gives you close to double the belt length.
As someone posted, heat is heat, I don't see how someone can claim that it makes a softer print.

[Wildcard]

My dryers tunnel length is about 4ft long and the tees are managing to come out pretty toasty at the end of it too. It's amazing that some shops are printing fast enough to need the 30ft ovens.

[Frog]

My dryers tunnel length is about 4ft long and the tees are managing to come out pretty toasty at the end of it too. It's amazing that some shops are printing fast enough to need the 30ft ovens.

considering that retention time for water based and discharge inks can be from 90 seconds to 3 minutes, it's easy to see the efficacy of a longer belt and heat tunnel.

[jvanick]

we have a 10ft chamber, and have to slow way down during WB and Discharge runs.  We run the belt at 4fpm to keep the shirts in the chamber 2-2.5 minutes.  This equates to roughly 350 pcs/hr...  When printing a plastisol job, we can print (even with flashing) in the 600-700 pcs/hr range.

We are limited by length in our shop, or I'd be adding a few extra chambers to be able to bump the speed.  When we move in a few years, we'll be looking at a minimum 60" belt, if not 72", and a minimum of a 16ft chamber for our WB area.

[LoneWolf2]

we have a 10ft chamber, and have to slow way down during WB and Discharge runs.  We run the belt at 4fpm to keep the shirts in the chamber 2-2.5 minutes.  This equates to roughly 350 pcs/hr...  When printing a plastisol job, we can print (even with flashing) in the 600-700 pcs/hr range.

We are limited by length in our shop, or I'd be adding a few extra chambers to be able to bump the speed.  When we move in a few years, we'll be looking at a minimum 60" belt, if not 72", and a minimum of a 16ft chamber for our WB area.

If space is limited then a dryer setup like this one would probably be a good idea! Unless y'all are set on moving to a bigger location where space wouldn't be a factor.

[jvanick]

We're definitely moving in a few years... now that we're pretty sure that 'this works' we'd rather own the building we're in vs. paying rent.  Plus more space would be really nice.

also, at the time we bought our setup, we weren't really planning on just how much WB/discharge work we're now doing.

[Wildcard]

This brings up so many questions I have about dryer settings that I should probably start a dedicated thread. Thanks for the info so far.

[ericheartsu]

i thought they had this dryer at a show last year. I remember talking to Ryan Barger about it. He said it wasn't ready just yet at the time of it's display, but they were tweaking some things on it before it was put out in the wild.

I'm waiting for it though, as we want one of these.

[UnderPressureSP]

I guess it's out in the wild now.   This is a big solution for water base printers with not enough space for a 36 ft of heat. Plus the 8 ft feed front and back.  With one auto I max out 12 ft of heat at 600 pieces a hour with no additives in my HSA ink.

[Maxie]

IR dryers are not really suitable for Water based pigments.
I have been using WB for years, plastisol reaches the right temp and cures, water based needs to cure at a set temp for a few minutes, I use water base that needs 5 minutes.
This is 5 minutes after the water in the print has evaporated and the pigments have reached the set temperature, in practice it can add a minute or so to the time.
The pigments I use can be cured for less time at a higher temperature but then we have scorching problems especially on white shirts.
The soft hand of WB is great but not being able to have a break, carry on tomorrow, etc make WB a PITA to work with.