My flatbed is to slow, so looking for tips on screen printing coroplast campaign signs with uv ink

[marunr]

I agree with all of the above. Campaign signs are always rush jobs and the learning curve for screenprinting, (and using either solvent or UV inks both have their own problems), is not going to allow you to do 7000 plus signs. Printing is an acquired skill, even though nobody wants to believe it. When I started printing 40 years ago my instructors always said anyone can slap ink on paper, but that's not printing. Hire an experienced printer and let them teach you or you will be in for an enormous amount of stress and mess.

 

[FireSprint.com]

We wholesale hundreds of thousands of these annually. We also give shop tours if you are ever in Omaha. Come on out and we'll show you how it's done.

There's no secrets in this business. Hard work, experience, and a keen interest to continuously improve processes make it work.

If you're serious, come to Omaha!

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

I wonder how it all went for him? No reply?

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

The guy got overloaded with politicians and tax returns... I think he imploded.

 

[Gino]

Impeachment got in the way.

 

[player]

Toxic ink poisoning.

 

[Mattocks]

Chiming in. We screen print plastics here. When I jumped into the screen printing with UV inks, it changed my whole setup and need and mesh counts,chemicals, emulsion types and wash out stations and everything from printing textiles only. I can say that there is a lot more extra setup involved and we added in an extra 1,000 square ft to accommodate for the larger screens and needs for washing it out. Also had to upgrade exposure unit bigger scaled and had to make a lot of adjustments internally . We are up and running here but I will say that If we didn't already screen print before, going from the flatbed to the silk screen method will be a big leap. My journey was backwards to this. I started screen printing before getting into the vinyl cutting and eco-solvent printing side. Not to mention the volatile pricing in plastics with corona virus + tariffs . These plastics have a dyne level and expiration life too on the raw material.

 

[Sunney]

Your best bet at this point is to hire an experienced screen printer to run your shop. Not sure I would have went uv, but that's because I've always been an air dry with racks guy. You will still need flatbed for those who want photos on their signs, so it might be in your best interest to headhunt someone with digital, art, and screen experience in one package. The learning curve for screenprinting is steep if you've never done it and at that volume mistakes will shut you down.

THIS is me too.
Screen printer for 39 years, started manual, now ATMA 6x4 ft three fourth automatic.
It is no Photoshop+digital printer, takes years to master: Skill starts from designing till stacking the dried sheets. Garbage in, garbage out.
It is for hardworker, die-hard's. BUT you can learn, with untiring training, AND once you do, it gives good margins.

 

[Troy Lesher]

All righty and thank you for reading and replying in advance.
Have roughly 7000 campaign signs ordered from me right now, with a ton more coming. I tried a sub and the quality was terrible. So push comes to shove, considering I cannot keep up with my Mimaki JFX 200, I have purchased 3 AWT micro 2538, the semi automatic flatbed and a uv accucure dryer, without a clue of how to use them. (I know, I know). So I got roughly 15k sheets of coroplast and a pretty sizable dumpster for the learning curve, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. We are talking UV screen printed coroplast signs.
I am going to take one step at a time and use a screen burning service to make my initial screens, until I get a handle on the rest of it. Do you have any suggestions? What size mesh do I need for UV ink. Planning on using Nazdar
Which Nazdar or other supplier you would recommend ink number would you use for a standard simple 2 color campaign signs? What other additives, or while in process screen cleaners do I need to buy.
Then any other suggestions you may have? There is only one way to learn, I imagine, so any help would be great lol.

All righty and thank you for reading and replying in advance.
Have roughly 7000 campaign signs ordered from me right now, with a ton more coming. I tried a sub and the quality was terrible. So push comes to shove, considering I cannot keep up with my Mimaki JFX 200, I have purchased 3 AWT micro 2538, the semi automatic flatbed and a uv accucure dryer, without a clue of how to use them. (I know, I know). So I got roughly 15k sheets of coroplast and a pretty sizable dumpster for the learning curve, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. We are talking UV screen printed coroplast signs.
I am going to take one step at a time and use a screen burning service to make my initial screens, until I get a handle on the rest of it. Do you have any suggestions? What size mesh do I need for UV ink. Planning on using Nazdar
Which Nazdar or other supplier you would recommend ink number would you use for a standard simple 2 color campaign signs? What other additives, or while in process screen cleaners do I need to buy.
Then any other suggestions you may have? There is only one way to learn, I imagine, so any help would be great lol.

for outsourcing you've been given good names , here is another right there in Alabama, Signmasters, Tommy trucks. if you want to do it yourself,

here is a potential solution
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zs1dqahtay4b5nk/production mode 2 sided.mov?dl=0​

 

[BC61]

If you want a real dose of what UV screen printing on coro is all about, start yourself out in the reclaiming area. After doing that for a week, I'm pretty sure you'll
be calling vendors to outsource your work.....