customer complaining that ink coming off...duhhh

[gabagoo]

I am in a bit of a pickle.... A good customer of mine ordered 500 aluminum plates 2" x 3" with 4 holes screen printed black with clear openings so that they could stamp part numbers and whatever else they put on them.
They reorder them this year and I get a price from that company and they have more than doubled my cost. I decide to get my regular screenprinter (who does good work btw) to quote it also. he comes in at a lower price but still about 50% more than I had paid back in 2011. I mark it up and get the job.

The customer was in a rush and i sent out 100 and then followed up 2 weeks later with the other 400.

I get a call yesterday from the purchasing agent that they have a problem with the plates. She tells me that the ink is coming off. I ask her how that is possible and what are they doing to them?

She says that they punch the numbers in and then the guy runs a sharpie marker over the indentations to fill the channels, then rubs the excess ink off.

I told her that they have never explained this one step to me before and YES the solvent in the marker can have an adverse effect on the ink. She says it never happened with the last order....so I sit here wondering WTF am I supposed to do now? Why did it not happen with the original plates, they were screen printed also.

Why when they got the 100 plates did they not call me immediately as they needed them so bad. I am thinking this ink addition is something new and they are trying to see if i will bend....but how do I make good...Is there a clear spray I can coat them with?

Help!!

 

[TXFB.INS]

you can try masking off the area that will be stamped and then clear coating the rest of the sign.
How close does the screen print get to the stamp area? how much of the screen print is coming off, just where the marker touches it or other areas? more to the point what is being used to wipe the excess sharpie ink off? that is a permanent marker.

your new screen printer, are they using the same inks / process as the 2011 order? plastisol vs water and what do they do for prepping the surface for better adhesion?

at current, you are stuck since your process has changed from 2011 and there is a strong chance theirs also did. So you are unable to say with certain where the issue is coming from

 

[gabagoo]

After posting this I decided to call them and ask more questions.... I have a feeling this rubbing of a sharpie marker is something they never did with the old ones, in fact I think they may have just tried doing it last week as they had the 100 plates I sent 2 weeks before the remainder of the order got there... They were in a desperate rush for them, yet nobody called with problems before the remaining 400 were sent out? Just weird. I told her to find a water based marker!!!


I used to do the plates dye sublimated many years back but they had issues with those as well..

 

[player]

Do you have an old plate to try the Sharpie on?

 

[shadowgrapher]

It depends on what ink your vendor used. For example if they used Nazdar 5900 enamel it sticks well to metal but is not solvent resistant. They may need to use something like a 9600 series with a catalyst. Once the catalyst cures it creates a solvent resistant finish. I'm not sure what the best way for you to proceed is, but if they were printed with 5900 or similar you may be able to clean them off and get them re-printed with a more suitable ink.

 

[V-ENGRAVE]

Barry,
Better option would be anodizing not screen printing for this type of job.

 

[gabagoo]

You do this?

 

[V-ENGRAVE]

I get it done by Identifab ( 27 and albion area).

 

[Gino]

So........ you change vendors..... and possibly the whole method/process in which you were originally having them furnished to you and you wonder why they didn't tell you something about a marker pen ??

Seems, you are the one who created the mess to save money and it backfired on you. Now, you want to hold them accountable somehow ??

How does this work ??

 

[gabagoo]

wrong Gino.... The sharpie marker is something they did not do in the past. I wondered about that and spoke to the purchasing agent again to clarify that this has been the way it was done since 2011 and she confirmed this was something they just started doing. You see people are basically full of %$%$#. They try to fool you. Back in 2011 I was only told that they punched serial numbers and codes on the item...no mention of trying to color them.

 

[gabagoo]

I get it done by Identifab ( 27 and albion area).

These were the guys I had do it way back and they doubled the price on me. They had screen printed that version as well.

 

[V-ENGRAVE]

Try to get the quote from thisre other shops:

MacFarlane Nameplates (Carlingview $ Dixon)

Stanley Manufacturing Company Inc. (East york)

Toronto Stamp (Scarborough)
[h=1][/h]

 

[Gino]

wrong Gino.... The sharpie marker is something they did not do in the past. I wondered about that and spoke to the purchasing agent again to clarify that this has been the way it was done since 2011 and she confirmed this was something they just started doing. You see people are basically full of %$%$#. They try to fool you. Back in 2011 I was only told that they punched serial numbers and codes on the item...no mention of trying to color them.

But honestly, YOU don't know if a different process, ink or anything else has taken place. In my years of screen printing, I don't remember an ink in which marker pens would remove the remaining ink. Unless the wrong ink was used, I'd step carefully.

 

[Naskhan]

We do tons of variable data, uid, and blank pad plates. Always use metalphoto or galvo engrave them. Then laser cut them on our 3kw fiber. Hardly ever silkscreen nameplates these days unless they are multicolor.