Tony Palmer gets off the grid with the first in a new series where he shares his visits to print shops around the globe and the problems he’s solved along the way
This week sees a return to an existing customer in Northampton.
Anyone who knows me knows of my obsession with all things Formula 1, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to stay overnight at the hotel that is located within England’s Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone.
This wasn’t my first stay at this hotel (did I mention I like F1?) and I was rewarded with a trackside room. There was no racing as this was November, but the track still holds a special place with me.
After experiencing the sunrise over the circuit it was off to visit Ben at Adlogo. I have worked with Ben before and he has a great little set-up, offering all types of garment decoration from direct-to-garment to embroidery.
MHM E-Type
Ben has a used MHM E-Type six-colour press, and this is where I have to be brutally honest: I don’t like the E-Type!
It is okay not to like a press! As long as you don’t tell the press you don’t like it, otherwise it really will work against you.
So, after hiding my distaste for this now discontinued type of press, we set to work on the task at hand. Ben had asked me in for a day to help with his white prints and a general overall refresher on crisp clean prints.
Agitating cold ink can help get it flowing through the screen
Tony and Adlogo’s MHM E-Type automatic press
Old squeegees that are ready to be yeeted away (a ‘technical term’ for binned and replaced!)
Prime suspect
We were printing onto fleece material and this can be problematic. As we refer back to the fundamentals we notice that the ink is not clearing the screen perfectly.
Prime suspect is the cold temperature of Northampton in November – the plastisol has stiffened up and is refusing to move freely. Like a teenager forced to empty the dishwasher, it simply doesn’t want to move.
We agitate the ink to get it in a good mood and willing to flow again and notice a small improvement, but still there remains ink in the stencil after the print stroke.
Second suspect in the sights is the squeegee blade, and a very quick test reveals it is not in optimum condition.
Squeegees are made from rubber, and just like the rubber tyres on a car or bike, they are not designed to last forever. I recommend changing them at least once per year. Take a clean blade (you can do it with a dirty blade but that just increases the risk of plastisol on the car and the dog) and run your finger lightly across it. If you can determine the ridges of your fingerprint on the edge then that blade is still optimum. If your fingerprint runs smoothly over the softened edge of the blade, then this blade has reached the end of its useful contribution to the simple task of pushing the ink through the holes in the mesh and it must be yeeted away. (A technical term for binned and replaced.)
New blades
We changed out the blades on Ben’s faithful E-type and did a test print. This time, all of the stubborn ink was persuaded to pass through the holes in the mesh and the resulting prints were brighter and cleaner as a direct result.
Blades are a consumable, just like the tyres on a car. Replace often and reap the rewards.
I drove back home trying to find a F1 link between my visit to Silverstone and printing blades. The soft, medium and hard tyres used in F1 racing and the soft, medium and hard blades used in printing just didn’t seem to have anything in common.
Tony Palmer has been in the garment decoration industry for over 30 years and is now an independent print consultant working closely with print shops across the globe to get the most from existing processes and techniques. He also co-hosts the popular screen printing podcast Chippy Tee! with Danny Donald of Flippin Sweet Print Co.
