Reclaiming Powder

[mimosatexas]

I believe supra is advertized as a two part chemical.  It definitely breaks down the ink a bit, though not completely.  It is soft/loosened enough from the mesh and frame (areas without emulsion) that it blows right out with the pressure washer.

[jsheridan]

Easyway supra and CCI dip and strip are two part chemicals that I'm familiar with and can say they both work to break down ink and soften emulsion. 

I favor dip and strip as it always lasted longer in the dip tank vs supra that required a refreshing every couple of days.

[Inkworks]

We used the Supra, got tired of cleaning inky smudges off of the wash out booth, screen frames, exposure units... Not a lot, not like globs of ink, just enough to be a pain, all screens were carded off to the point that no more ink could be carded off. The only way the dip tank worked for us would have been if it did a good job on de-inking and emulsion removal. It didn't. We use the stack method and are just as fast as pre-cleaning ink off and then using the diptank, there is less ink contamination in the shop, and it uses much less chemical, the diptank is now a post-exposure tank and gives us time/money savings I can measure.

We don't do a ton of screens every day, maybe if we did we could find a way to make the diptank work and try some other chemicals, but it wasn't worth it for us.

[Sbrem]

I checked with our screen guy, and we are currently using Supra, but we clean the ink out first, as I mentioned earlier.

Steve

[Inkworks]

You should look into powder and mixing your own for you next refill then, probably save $100 or more.

[Gilligan]

Where is everyone getting said powder?

[Inkworks]

Saati has it.

[Evo]

I would say to any shop that hasn't tried a dip tank to just go ahead and jump in. (pun intended)

It's a pretty minimal investment and what you save is LABOR COSTS, which makes the whole set up pay for itself pretty quick.

If it doesn't work for your shop, no big whoop. Put clear water in it and use it for developing.

[SteveS]

What is this powders' trade name?

[3Deep]

I got mine from WM Plastics it's called CRER300 reclaiming concentrate powder and I'm sure there are plenty other brands out there this is just one.

darryl

[ABuffington]

Powder vs liquids.  First, dip tanks are the way to go for less labor and material savings.  However what goes in there can also have issues over many months of use.  If you continue to recharge the reclaiming solution with more reclaiming powder month after month you eventually will see it not perform as well as it was when it was fresh.  The reason is it will recrystalize at the bottom of the tank and any new powder will crystalize on top of the hardened stuff at the bottom of the tank.  At some point the solution will become so acidic that it will harden screens and not reclaim them.  This happens with huge tanks that just have more water and powders added to them over many months when companies don't clean them out and start with fresh water and powder.

This is the advantage of emulsion remover liquid concentrates, it will not recrystalize at the bottom of the tank, it remains suspended in the solution.  Our ER-605 concentrate can be mixed 30:1 for plastisol reclaimation or 15:1 for hardened water base screens. 

I have seen the results of combo systems that remove ink and emulsion.  Couple of issues here, you could be putting plastisol down the drain, not wise in highly controlled waste water managed districts.  If you have only one wash out sink it will get contaminated with plastisol and lead to screen contamination during degreasing.  Two sinks is OK, but the first sink will get messy, and eventually the whole screen room, if not maintained, will get  plastisol everywhere.  The busier the shop the less time there is to maintain cleanliness.  Consider the screens used to print 20 micron traces for solar cells are made in a pristine clean room similar to the requirements for medical manufacturing.  For some reason in textile printing we accept that screen rooms will be a dirty, inky mess.  When shops get so bad that ink isn't removed from frames, sinks are smeared with ink, many emulsion issues will follow.   

Haze control?  Why is it a shop will wait a week to wash a screen?  It's the same amount of labor to do it immediately after the job is done.  Kind of like letting all your dishes build up over the week and get out ozite pads to get the spaghetti off.  Wash water base screens instantly after production with soap and hot water.  Clean plastisol screens (especially dark inks) immediately with good screen cleaners.  Avoid hot solvents like acetone or MEK or screen openers, why?  They can lock in pure photopolymer screens and make them impossible to reclaim.  Our SC-507 cuts the ink as well as any hot solvent, there are many good ones out there that are not hot solvent based.

We offer powder in 1lb cannisters and 50lb bags as well as Liquid Emulsion Remover Concentrate through our dealers.

Al

[ScreenFoo]

That's not a fair comparison. 

You just have to get the dishes wet and let them sit for a few minutes, no such fix for screens.