Print driers

[Lynn Normington]

Kevin, not sure what you mean, but our new jv3 has a built in "dryer" fan
but the print is touch dry anyway by the time it gets to the take up roller.

Lynn

[Robert Lambie]

i am guessing your talking about on-board driers from grafityp?
i think idea is pretty good but i have no experience of them, but did consider buying one last year.

we have a very warm heater that sits 4-ft away from the front of our machine and hits the prints face on as they spill out. (its not a regular heat, but ill be damned if i remember what you call them) anyway… this works pretty well for us as well as heating the room. so i guess the on board dryer would do a better job as its directly below the media.

[Kevin Flowers]

Lynn
My prints are dry to touch out of the machine but if an inked surface lays on another inked surface and they have not cured all the way through they can stick to each other. (dependent on media, humidity etc)
The driers are a add on unit which are basically a curved heated panel which the print runs across. This causes the ink to dry from the inside out rather than from the outside in. Never used one with my Rockhopper although i have had the odd problem of long prints sticking together but 90% of the time it printed so slow that prints were dry by the time the print was long enough to fold itself on to itself.
Now i have brought a Soljet 2 which prints at a fast rate i’ve been looking at ways of insuring the print is dry enough to roll/fold.

Rob
from what you say you are using a Radiant heater which heats solids & not the air

Kev

[Robert Lambie]

hi kev
not sure the name of it… ill check tomorrow. ive seen them used in spray shops for drying paintwork on the wings of cars and the like. red bulbs.

is this the dryers your talking about?

http://www.grafityp.co.uk/onlinedryers.htm

[Kevin Flowers]

Hi Rob
Your heater is a radiant heater they are good as you say used for drying paint etc.
The print driers are the ones although i had actually found the company direct, am actually looking to build my own with a few mods as i’m limited for room with the bigger machine which is the reason that i can’t use a radiant heater

Kev

[Lee Attewell]

I bought the Roland one with my EX 540 and it’s great. It’s got two dryers in the unit plus a load of blower fans on the top to help with the gassing out. I always use it, even in Summer when it’s bloody hot, because we keep our print room at about 23 degrees.

I do plan to make a drying cupboard to help with speeding up drying even more. I’ll try to find the plans for it and post them up for ya later on.

[Kevin Flowers]

Cheers Lee for taking time to post look forward to seeing your plans for the drying cupboard

Kev

[George Kern]

We use IR dryers on our machines. They are not necessary if you are running short runs. But we use them because most of the jobs we run are full rolls of material and it really stinks to find out a panel was bad because it didnt dry properly, only to find this out after its been laminated etc then you have to go back and re-print it. They work well. The temperatures vary depending on the media and profiles being used.

[Phil Halling]

What inks are you using Kevin ?

[keirsmart]

The heaters from the suppliers of the printers usually cost >£2,000. We got normal halogen heaters and have them about 3-4 ft away from the print as it comes down the front the of the printer prior to rolling on the take up roller. The cost per fire is ~£220.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/ranges.asp?g=118&r=3155

The only issue is health and safety in that we have electrical cables coming out from the wall and this crosses the area where an operator might walk.

[Kevin Flowers]

Hi Phil
i’m using eco-max inks but a third party brand in the soljet & ultra inks in the Mutoh. Although the inks in the Soljet may eventually be changed, it was loaded with these for the purpose of sorting the machine. Don’t have room to run Halogen heaters and often leave the printers running unattended so wouldn’t be happy leave the heaters unattended.
At present talking to a supplier of mica heater elements to attach to an aluminum platen these will be operated via temp controller activated by an optic sensor plus timer so as to operate only when material is moving across the surface. This will be able to fold flat under machine when not in use.

Kev

[Robert Lambie]

quote keirsmart:

The heaters from the suppliers of the printers usually cost >£2,000. We got normal halogen heaters and have them about 3-4 ft away from the print as it comes down the front the of the printer prior to rolling on the take up roller. The cost per fire is ~£220.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/ranges.asp?g=118&r=3155

The only issue is health and safety in that we have electrical cables coming out from the wall and this crosses the area where an operator might walk.

those heaters are almost exactly the same as the ones we have keir. down side to them is they are about £50 per bulb to replace… but they do last a hell of a long time.

[Kevin Flowers]

Waiting for reply from element supplier at the moment, once i have that i’ll start to draw electrical system & body construction. Lucky i have a good fabrication shop close by for metal supply (not yet settled on steel or Ali platen) & use of facilities, most electrical components will be from local RS Components. Will post results once its underway.

Kev

[MartinDenton]

We have the bennes drier on a Roland 540 ex. we found a big improvement on drying time and no more stuck images on the take-up roller. generally the drying time problem only occurred with images where a lot of black was present. drier cost us circa £1050

[keirsmart]

quote Robert Lambie:

quote keirsmart:

The heaters from the suppliers of the printers usually cost >£2,000. We got normal halogen heaters and have them about 3-4 ft away from the print as it comes down the front the of the printer prior to rolling on the take up roller. The cost per fire is ~£220.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/ranges.asp?g=118&r=3155

The only issue is health and safety in that we have electrical cables coming out from the wall and this crosses the area where an operator might walk.

those heaters are almost exactly the same as the ones we have keir. down side to them is they are about £50 per bulb to replace… but they do last a hell of a long time.

Hi Robert,

I have just bought a box of 10 from Trilight http://www.trilight-therapy.co.uk/ @ ~£30 each. This will last us quite some time so if you ever need a new one, feel free to ask and if we have one you are welcome to it. We pass near to your location often.

regards,
Keir