ImagesMagUK_September_2021

www.images-magazine.com SEPTEMBER 2021 images 39 TIPS & TECHNIQUES what’s right for you and your business at this point in time. You may also want visualise what you are aiming for in the future when business builds up, so you can start planning for the future now. Weighing it up Space and monetary constraints limit many businesses. The least expensive and most common procedure is to dry the pretreatment and inks with a heat press. Presses take up less space compared to a tunnel dryer and typically cost less. If you are working out of a smaller space, then the heat press is the most logical way to go. Those with larger premises and resources should consider a tunnel dryer. If daily volumes are high – for instance, if you’re producing more than 100 prints a day – with financial and space resources not an issue, dryers make a lot of sense. Due to increased throughput and productivity, a good tunnel dryer such as the Xpres Dry 1000 for curing ink can make sense for DTG businesses that are running printers in a volume/production setting. xpres.co.uk xpresplus.co.uk more than a standard heat press (from around £9,000 to £30,000+, depending on the spec and speed) and require flue extraction to ensure adequate ventilation during the curing process. The main difference when using tunnel dryers is that it takes longer. This varies depending on the type and size of the dryer, but the cure time is usually longer than using a heat press. However, this isn’t an issue as long as your dryer of choice can keep up with the printer. You just lay shirts on the conveyor belt once they are printed. The key when deciding what equipment to use is to ensure you have the knowledge and confidence to purchase A heat press such as the Sefa Clam is a versatile option Pretreatment machines are typically able to pretreat a shirt faster than the curing process takes. Using a conveyor dryer, provided it is of sufficient size and capacity, will allow a single operator of the pretreatment machine to process shirts at a higher rate than using a single heat press. Another bonus is no compression marks from the heat press on the shirt and colours remain vibrant. Much like heat presses, tunnel dryers have multiple uses so most screen printers will already have a tunnel dryer set up and they are also relatively hassle-free, as dried garments simply drop into a basket for collection. Tunnel dryer cons One of the potential drawbacks of using tunnel dryers is that the finished print surface could be less smooth than if it had been pressed dry. One option is to use the conveyor dryer to get most of the pretreatment dried and finish off with a quick press, but this defeats the purpose of trying to eliminate the heat press in the first place. Tunnel dryers require much more space than a heat press, as well as using more power to operate. They also cost Made in Germany