screen printing > Newbie
Flash time counting - how do you time your flash?
spencer_L&KC:
My shop is very small, manual only, running an 18"x24" BBC Black Flash. We are working on an Anatol Thunder that has 16"x22" pallets. We have a lot of customers who want large prints. When printing say a 15" x 20" print, it takes the the flash a good 8-10 secs to get those top and bottom parts of the print dry enough for the next color. In an effort to keep the press moving efficiently, without having to wait longer than needed, or having to print/flash again because we moved along to quickly on one of them, we count the time needed for each flash. When printing I am usually listening to music and that makes counting in my head or out loud difficult to stay accurate.
Our solution is using the stopwatch functionality on an iphone. We print the first color and when we swing that pallet under the flash with one hand, we start the timer with the other. While that is counting we are printing the next garment and when the time reaches where we want it, we swing the carousel for the next garment, and repeat by resetting and restarting the stopwatch. Using the stopwatch gives us a visual of where we are at for each flash and print stroke, keeping things very uniform and easily repeated. We are sort of tired of using the iphone and have been looking for a touch screen timer or stopwatch dedicated for this purpose only, but before we bother buying anything, I thought I would ask how others are counting their flash times.
I understand that most on here are probably working with quartz flashes, which have built in timers, but for those of you still working with infrared panel flashes, how do you count to get accurate repetitive flash times?
3Deep:
Even thought we have an auto press we still use our manual press from time to time, very simple for me once the flash is good and hot my print strokes is my count, so how every long it take's me to print a shirt it's flashing plus I set my flash about 2 inches over the pallet or adjust the height for whatever I'm printing.
spencer_L&KC:
--- Quote from: 3Deep on August 04, 2025, 01:31:36 PM ---Even thought we have an auto press we still use our manual press from time to time, very simple for me once the flash is good and hot my print strokes is my count, so how every long it take's me to print a shirt it's flashing plus I set my flash about 2 inches over the pallet or adjust the height for whatever I'm printing.
--- End quote ---
So basically youre adjusting your flash temp and distance so that the flash takes as long as the print stroke takes to flood and print, with maybe another "stencil clearing" second stroke? Dont you ever experience times when your print stroke is faster or slower than others? Do you ever get parts of the print still wet because you went faster on a print stroke, resulting in the garment sticking or opacity suffering? Since I have been using a timer, I know for sure there are times when some print strokes are faster than others, by 2-3 seconds, which can be a considerable difference when flashing.
I guess I am a bit OCD, hence the timer. If it takes 8 seconds to flash a print between colors, then I want each flash to be 8 seconds exactly. If I didnt time it, I am positive I would be getting some flashes at 6 or 7 seconds, resulting in less than desired results. My goal is the most consistent prints, shirt to shirt.
Or maybe I am taking the "it needs to be dry but still tacky" too seriously. Maybe I should just run the flash a little warmer and not worry as much about it staying tacky, so long as its not under there a long time coming close to curing the ink.
Thanks for the reply!
Admiral:
I think you really need to get a larger flash, for these bigger prints. IR is fine once heated up, but you need it a couple of inches larger than the print in both directions, minimum.
We only use 20x24" flashes here even though we almost always print 14" wide max. We do print up to 16.5" wide with the larger screens too though.
spencer_L&KC:
--- Quote from: Admiral on August 04, 2025, 03:42:11 PM ---I think you really need to get a larger flash, for these bigger prints. IR is fine once heated up, but you need it a couple of inches larger than the print in both directions, minimum.
We only use 20x24" flashes here even though we almost always print 14" wide max. We do print up to 16.5" wide with the larger screens too though.
--- End quote ---
Which flash do you have that is 20"x24"? I don't think BBC makes that sizes, the next size up is 24"x24". I am interested in quartz, but the next upgrade is a larger dryer.
My 18"x24" which is actually more like 17"x23" panel, does seem to fit the "couple of inches larger than the print" bill already though. My max print size is 15"x20".
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version