Triple Durometer Squeegies

[squeegee]

Anyone looking for new blade should check out Saati for pricing, when I was looking I could get a 12' roll of triple durometer for not much more than I paid for one 16" SJ squeegee.

On SJ in our shop wide designs have been a problem with the beveled edge with uneven ink deposit at the edges, we've pretty much abandoned them except for the sharp edge, of course some swear by them, could be a machine difference I suppose.

[Frog]

I don't have any info in front of me right now, but Saati "rubber" comes in different price ranges. I think that one variable is whether the edges are mechanically cut, or done with heat.
I have to go through my notes, and maybe even find the info on my Saati guy. It's been years since I ordered.

[tonypep]

Most squeegee material is actually extruded. Not sure on the SJ though.

[inkman996]

From what I hear about the smilies is that your press has to be balls on plane to reap the benefits, might be a good tool to help people maintain good plane with their press's. Lets face it we all probably know someone that has no clue how to level or why to level their machines.

[Homer]

From what I hear about the smilies is that your press has to be balls on plane to reap the benefits, might be a good tool to help people maintain good plane with their press's. Lets face it we all probably know someone that has no clue how to level or why to level their machines.

that's what you guys are saying about the newman constant force blades too. . too many variables involved to say "this is the best squeegie" I wish I had a solid month to do nothing but R&D. . .so many things to try and no time to

[squeegee]

I don't have any info in front of me right now, but Saati "rubber" comes in different price ranges. I think that one variable is whether the edges are mechanically cut, or done with heat.
I have to go through my notes, and maybe even find the info on my Saati guy. It's been years since I ordered.

Saati has molded and cut squeegee material.  The cut is recommended for those that like to sharpen squeegees, the molded for added chemical resistance.  Either way the price is nice.

[Frog]

The chemical resistance is probably far less of an issue with our inks than with the rest of the industry.

[squeegee]

From what I hear about the smilies is that your press has to be balls on plane to reap the benefits, might be a good tool to help people maintain good plane with their press's. Lets face it we all probably know someone that has no clue how to level or why to level their machines.

I don't think for us that level has anything to do with it, more like uneven pressure at the edges due to the "smile" groove that's cut into those squeegees.  What I meant about machine difference is that our MHM's have a center pin that holds the squeegee holder, so they float, sort of like the Jav squeegee system but to a much lesser degree, but that still doesn't really account for uneven ink deposit at both edges at the same time on wide designs that we see with the SJ beveled edge.

[244]

Thanks for the enlightenment........I remember when Joe came up with the "heated screen stretcher" which utilized a flash panel underneath a stretching table.
Good times........and a shout out to JC. Nice article on the China Op. I'm kind of a "open up the barrel and find out what's in it first" person.

Yea that was a fun but expensive experiment. Internally we called it the Shake and Bake machine. Another shelved patent!

[tonypep]

I'm sure it was but thats when everyone had money! At that same show I remember talking you and the guys at Precision about an inline foil application for a Nike Olympics project I had coming up. Every was a bit excited and was sketching out how to do it. The project eventually died (this was back in the late eighties) but look what happened years later!

[alan802]

I am with Chris and Squeegee on the SJ blades.  They do struggle with wider prints because you get too much flex at the far edges of the blade.  I guess Joe could fix that easily by making the "smile" flatter and it's good to see someone else mention that problem.  I mentioned it to a big time industry guy at a show once and he kind of laughed at me like I was the problem, not the blade.  I guess we should use bigger screens for that width, and lower the off contact even more, but no matter what we did on press, it doesn't help the ink deposit out wide. We've had to put regular blades in numerous times on wide prints because of the SJ's deficiency in that department.

Now for the good part of the SJ's.  Two blades in one.  You can change the ink deposit drastically by flipping the blade over.  Not enough ink deposit using the sharp side?  Flip it over, straighten the angle up, increase the speed a little and you can incrementally change the deposit by changing a few print settings.  I noticed that it took a few hundred print strokes with the SJ's to get them broken in to where they would print right, which is why some shops abandon them really quickly.  I guess that break in period is needed to get the blade edge to "funnel" correctly and makes it shear the ink better.  The contact between the blade and the mesh becomes better and they magically start printing great.  I've had our SJ's for 2 years now and they are holding up well, the blade edge really does last significantly longer than your regular blade which makes the $45 per 16" more reasonable. 

I do like using triple duro's and the beveled blades for underbasing.  We have a 70 duro beveled and and 80 duro, along with a 55/90/55 and regular 70's.  We use them all, just depends on what we're trying to do. 

[LuxInks]

Hey, I just wanted to thank everyone for their input on this. The feed back was really informative and we're going to purchase some and give it a try. Thankfully we have a local supplier so we'll be able to give it a try next week.
Enjoy your weekend.
Paul