Perspectives | Page 10 of 16 | Engineered Printing Solutions

Have you ever had ink leaking over the edge of your cliché? You have tried to figure out the solutions and investigated the issue by taking the cup off to check if the ink was too thin. When you did that you discovered that the ink might be too thick, but you are still uncertain of what steps to take to fix the problem.

We have a solution for you. There are a couple things that are contributing to the issue: 1. Ink too thick. This causes the inkcup to hydroplane the resultant of which is the residual ink getting plowed into a pile on the return stroke. 2. Heat accelerating the cross linking process causing increased out gassing. Cracking or removal of the inkcup filler screw should alleviate this. “Weak” magnets are not a contributing factor. The exposed magnets may have a minimal effect with relieving this issue but it is just a band-aid … not … addressing root cause.

Check out our ink options at www.epsvt.com. There you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.

Wondering how to properly dispose of ink? We dispose of bulk quantities of “used” ink with pouring it into a 55 gallon drum (for mass collection). The drum is collected by a waste management company, contracted on a bi-weekly pickup, for disposal in compliance with Department of Transportation (DOT), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and state regulations.

Smaller quantities, e.g.: paper towels used for cleaning, are collected in smaller hazmat containers, allowed to dry and placed in with normal rubbish consistent with how printed product would be disposed of.

Is it an hour, a day, a week or is there a way to test to be sure the priming function is still viable?

Unfortunately there is no hard and fast answer to how long it can be expected that the pre-treatment will remain in effect. Largely this is dictated by the make-up of the material to be pre-treated. Different plastics will retain the pre-treatment for differing amounts of time. Testing would have to be performed to understand the specific product you are printing.

In my experience I’ve seen product keep pre-treat for as long as three weeks however, more often than not, the pre-treatment degrades in a matter of hours as opposed to days.

We are always of the mind to recommend printing product as soon thereafter it is wiped (and the liquid flashes) as is feasible. As a general rule of thumb it is always best to print the product just after pre-treatment has been performed. Of course … you should wait for the pre-treatment to flash prior to print.

Check out our other Pre-Treatment options at www.epsvt.com. There you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.

Engineered Printing Solutions has worked with numerous apparel manufacturers of T-shirts, underwear, and lingerie in developing tagless printing operations to identify brands, sizes, and care labels.

Tagless labeling allows garment manufactures to print directly on the fabric – eliminating the need for sewn-in tags and the cost and labor associated with it.

Direct Labeling – Fine and detailed printing directly on fabrics.
High speed productivity – More than 1,000 prints per hour are possible.
Flexibility – The print can be placed on any part of the garment.
Global support – We have many successful operations in Asia, Central and South America, Philippines, the USA and many other locations.

Advantages Of Going Tagless

Lower cost than other types of decorating with price per printed label averaging $.002
Can print one color on top of another, no post-curing time required
Eliminates purchase of labels from outside source
No sewn tags to irritate or rub against skin
Inks have passed major manufacturers’ wash test requirements
Tagless often advertised as premium feature
Easy customization and design changes
No waste by having to pre-stock labels with possible leftovers.

Equipment Needed To Go Tagless

Our expert teams of engineers and technicians have been involved in the development of “tagless” pad printing for over ten years. We have several pad printers to choose from depending on the size of your image, number of colors and printing volume. Tech Tip Tuesday: Advantages of Tagless Printing

KP06 – 2Color “RR” or pad shuttle function allows the part to remain stationary as the pads shuttle back and forth for high quality print registration. Available with two 110mm sealed ink cups and a production rate of ± 600 -700 pcs/hr.
EAZY Series – available with a 90 / 130 or Eazy 160 Pad Printer sealed ink cup. Production rate at 1200 pcs/hr.
KP05 can be configured as a one or two color printer, tabletop or with an extruded stand, plus other accessories that include a garment rack and a textile anvil. One color printer includes a 90mm sealed cup or two color with two 70mm sealed cups.

All inks are non-toxic and have been certified for 50 plus washes by multiple manufacturers on all common fabrics. The recommended ink PLT6 is compatible with Oeko-Tex^® certification.

Check out our Tagless Printing at www.epsvt.com. There you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.

The viscospatula is designed as a simple but efficient tool to assist you in establishing a consistent and reasonably accurate viscosity when mixing inks for use in your pad printing machinery. You will notice the five smaller holes at the wider end of the spatula. The speed at which your ink runs from the top hole (number one) to the last hole (number five), is the measure of an ink’s viscosity.

REMEMBER: The thinner the ink, the faster it will move from the first hole to the last.

Method of use:

Mix the ink in a coffee size cup using the spatula and add thinner until the ink is at the viscosity that appears correct.
Dip the spatula into the ink until “A” is covered.
Remove the spatula from the ink until the spatula is no longer submerged in the ink.
immediately when the ink tuns out of hole “A” begin counting. Once the ink passes hole “B”, the number you have counted to is your reference count.
This same procedure can be used to maintain consistent ink viscosities for any inks you use. Once you have an ink working properly on a particular application, use the viscospatula to identify it’s viscosity setting and establish a point to mix the ink at the next time that you need to perform a similar setup.

When the Viscospatula is new, it will naturally take longer for the ink to travel down the hole number five. This is due to the pores in the plastic still being open and creating a slight bond with the ink. Once the viscospatula has been broken in, a time of 10-12 seconds is a reasonable time and should work well with a plate that has been etched to a depth of approximately .001″. As a general rule, the deeper the plate etch depth the thicker the ink should be; however, remember that the plate depth has definite restrictions, and etch depths that are too deep will create certain types of printing problems.

Check out our Ink Consumables at www.epsvt.com. There you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.

The essence of the pad printing process is ink management – achieving a complete transfer of the ink (the image) from the Printing Platesto the surface of the part.

Our custom “hot wind” option is a feature that affords your operator(s) much more control over their pad printing (i.e., ink management) process. Here’s how:

As most of you might know, your ink mixture changes over time. The solvent will flash off (as it’s designed to do) and your ink mixture will gradually thicken. As this occurs, you have a few options – you can add thinner as needed, you can program (if your machine will let you) “dwell” or “pause” times to accommodate, or you can direct a controlled air flow over the pad / part.

In order to maintain your production rate, pauses are not the best option. Stopping to re-mix ink is not always the best solution, either. Having the option to provide a controlled air flow is convenient and keeps your production rates up. If your ink is not “tacking off” fast enough for a compete transfer, hot air can help speed things up.

If you are printing a multi-color job, your machine picks up all the colors simultaneously and prints them sequentially. As a result, the last color printed has been on the pad for several seconds longer than the first color. Unless your operators mix the colors differently (e.g., different ink-to-thinner ratios) this can lead to incomplete ink transfer from one (or more) of your pads. Hot air (available for each pad / color) is a great way to adjust each color’s transfer speed, resulting in complete transfers and more efficient (i.e., more profitable) pad printing jobs.

Check out our Pad Printing Machines at www.epsvt.com. There you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.

That’s the million dollar question! (Don’t worry. It won’t cost that much.) We’ve already outlined how you might benefit from the addition of an inkjet printer, and how to justify the cost of another piece of equipment, in a previous post. Now you have to match your workload and job requirements to the right machine configuration.

What’s the best inkjet machine solution?

That depends. Here are a few criteria used to get that answer:

Image quality – higher resolution means higher priced heads (or more passes).

Throughput – there are “multi-pass” versus “single-pass” options (more on that later).
Part size – limitations on height / width = machine size.
Image size = part size = machine size.
Substrate used – Regardless of the print technology, some substrates (PP & PE come to mind) still require pre-treatment for best image adhesion.
Number of colors required – dark substrates will need White base-coat layer, plus CMYK

What’s the best inkjet technology for me?

Do you need high volume / throughput with minimal part handling? Consider an automated conveyor, single-pass inkjet printer. You’ll typically get:

XD070 Single Pass Inkjet Printer

Up to 14″ per second of print speed

A print width that will be a minimum of 2.75″ and can be wider on a custom configuration.

Print resolutions up to 720 dpi in a single pass.

This is a great configuration for in-line applications, especially when pre-treatment is required. In many applications, you might require tooling of some sort to make sure parts are spaced and aligned consistently. Some units will incorporate a series of sensors to detect the part, and software that tells the heads when the part is in position for printing. We’ll help you with those.

Do you need higher resolution (up to 1200 dpi) but less speed? Perhaps a flatbed printer is your best option. These units offer:

An advantage for smaller / identical parts that can be placed in machined trays or nests.

A vacuum platen so you can print flat “stock.”

A series of print heads (arrays) on a rack that moves across the bed, printing and curing as it goes, giving you the capability of printing in a single direction, or printing in both directions, depending on your needs. It’s not as fast, but print resolution may be a higher priority.

With either of the above technologies, you will have the capability of adjusting print speeds, ink density / droplet size, head heights, and color hues. Speaking of colors, if you are printing process color on a dark substrate, you will need to print a white base layer first, but both technologies can accommodate that. In addition, it’s possible to print a clear-coat to protect the image or provide a more glossy appearance, but you’ll probably have to sacrifice one of the white arrays.

Do you only print in one color? Obviously, it’s possible to print monochrome or spot colors with inkjet, but keep in mind that it’s not practical to change or flush colors in the same array. With most high end industrial inkjets, ink is fed from bulk tanks, not cartridges (helps to keep the consumable costs down).

Therefore, if you are thinking of printing with one color only, monochrome machines are available, but you need to be very sure that you will only require that one color. Custom machines have been built with white and black arrays, so the customer can print either (and even mix both to get a gray hue).

Does your customer ask to make changes on press or repeat exact specs? Inkjet will usually provide the capability to manipulate the images at the machine, with the assistance of on-board graphic art software such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW. Some machines are capable of storing jobs (or job “queues”) so operators can simply select from a drop-down box. Custom machines are network-capable, so jobs can be entered remotely, and many in-line / automated units can be accessed remotely for both job entry and diagnostic capabilities.

Now you know a lot more about industrial inkjet printers than the average pad printer. Don’t forget: at EPSVT we build your industrial inkjet printer the same way we build your pad printer — from the ground up to your specifications. That makes it clean, efficient and engineered for accuracy and cost effectiveness.

Call our toll-free number 800-272-7764 or go on-line at Ink Adhesion Part 3: Ink Mixing, Contamination, Blooming and Mold Release Agents and click on Live Chat. We’ll start you down a two-lane inkjet/pad printer highway to greater success.

More often than not, the ceramic rings do not make it to expiration of the useful production life. The more likely scenario for replacing them tend to be mishandling. The rings will often be set down incorrectly or dropped causing a chip in the ring that renders it unusable.

If the ring is to make it to the end of its useful production life, one of the symptoms is heavy shadowing of ink on the cliché. The lapped flat, when new, is approximately 0.005″ wide. When the flat wears to a point where the mean width approaches the 0.010″ to 0.015″ width, you can safely say the ring has served you well.

In my experience you can see upwards of 5 – 6 years of useful life out of a ceramic ring (dependent on usage).

Check out our Pad Printing Machines at www.epsvt.com there you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.

It is very important that whether it is an operator or maintenance that care is always taken when working with drop-on-demand print heads. They are generally expensive and delicate. If you want to maximize the production life of print heads only trained personal should be handling them. A filtration of some sort should be used between the supply of ink and print head to filter out impurities before reaching the head. For UV curable inks with heads stray UV should be shielded, and take precaution to keep from over exposure and curing of the face plate.

To maximize the production life of print heads care must be taken by keeping the head and especially the face plate clean. Use the appropriate flush for the ink set being used. Not all flush is compatible so if not certain call your ink supplier. Wipe the heads prior to printing with the flush and a clean lint free head wipe. Maintenance jetting or head cleaning should be done daily/weekly to exercise all jets in the head depending on usage. While printing all nozzles may not be printing so this exercise ensures all nozzles fire. It is then best to perform a jet test. By doing so you will actually print on to a substrate to witness a pattern/image of the individual nozzles firing. Doing this routine on a daily basis ensures you see a possible problem before it become unrecoverable. Many heads are recoverable if taken care of and signs of blockage are caught early enough and no physical damage to the head. Talk to your ink/head supplier for possible head recovery procedures or service.

Check out our industrial inkjet printers at www.epsvt.com there you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.

There are two major differences between a polymer plate and a thin steel plate:

Etching method.
1. Printing Plates are etched by means of a UV exposure unit whereby a series of steps are taken to burn the image to the surface of the plate while exposing the surrounding area. Depending on the type of polymer (alcohol or water wash) the unhardened material will be washed away to leave a positive impression of the image.
2. The Printing Plates process is similar however to get to the end result the steel must see an acid bath for the etching process.
Production life.
1. There are many different types of polymer plate materials and associated estimated production lives. This speaks to the importance of selection of a material that is cost-effective for the anticipated production run. There are plate materials that are rated anywhere from 10k – 15k impressions with higher end materials can provide an estimated 60k – 70k impressions.
2. The thin steel plate material has been estimated in the 500k+ impression range for durability.

The above factors have bearing on the cost of the material. As you might imagine, the photosensitive polymers tend to be much cheaper, in particular on the lower end of the durability scale, while the thin steel plate’s durability tends to be a bit higher.

Thick steel plates are another option. Thick steel plates are usually about 10mm thick and rated for a production life of close to one million cycles.

Want to learn more about printing plates? Drop us a line!