ImagesMagUK_March_2021

www.images-magazine.com MARCH 2021 images 67 KB BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT items cost money, but they can save you hundreds of hours of lost production time fiddling with getting your jobs going. Carpenters use jigs to save time cutting multiple boards down to the same length. These devices work with the same idea. Reducing downtime means you are making more money. When these tasks get easier, more people can learn how to do them. Don’t let your ‘veteran’ employees convince you that these systems don’t work. They do. Use templates The idea of templates can be found everywhere. If you are repeating steps, such as when you build an art file for production, it is much easier to have items that you need already available. Registration marks, colour names, positioning guidelines, etc. Whatever you are constantly using, get it built and saved, and start with a chunk of your work ready to use. This idea can carry over to other areas in your business too. For example, if you are creating online stores for clients, try setting up a master online store that has key information, pricing, items, and other things ready to go. Clone the store, and then add or edit the items you need to make it work for the new project. Don’t start from scratch every time! Measuring tools If you’re a screen printer, you need a tension meter. Screen tension plays a critical role in print quality, press speed, and ink film opaqueness. Tip: if you have to double stroke your white underbase or other colours for opacity and coverage, you’re not doing things correctly. Take a minute and step back and dig into why you are doing that. [Read ‘How to manage tension in your shop’ in the August 2019 issue of Images for more on this: http://imagesmag.uk/tension ] Dryer temperature Another great tool is the donut probe. It is called a donut probe because the measuring part of the device is round and about the size of a donut (or doughnut, in the UK...). This allows you to measure and chart your dryer chamber to ensure that your ink is being properly cured. By placing this on the wet ink on a shirt and sending it through the dryer tunnel, you can see when the ink reaches the proper cure temperature. This is how you ensure you are printing and curing your work correctly. If you are serious about the quality of your work, this is a must-have tool. Why is everyone so fascinated with either using a cheaper, less productive version of something, or a shortcut? [Clockwise, from top left] Would you use a screen with this tension? In this sample, using Spectro 1 from Variable, a printed PMS 186 colour was compared to a sample swatch from Pantone. Day 1 production numbers from a coaching client