# Difference between flash dryer and cooking oven?



## yoonique (May 28, 2007)

hi,
ive been screen printing for a little less than a year now, but i have never dried a shirt in one of those big flash dryers before.

i wanted to know if it was possible for someone to dry a shirt in a standard cooking oven @ 300 degrees rather than a giant flash dryer.

can someone please tell me what the difference is between the flash dryer and cooking oven?


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## gerry (Oct 4, 2006)

yoonique said:


> hi,
> ive been screen printing for a little less than a year now, but i have never dried a shirt in one of those big flash dryers before.
> 
> i wanted to know if it was possible for someone to dry a shirt in a standard cooking oven @ 300 degrees rather than a giant flash dryer.
> ...


Yes,..best to hang out with a fire ext.(Read instructions)
The difference being on volume /ease.vs. p.i.t.a.(pain in ar*e
More research & practice have been a staple of my diet since forever..


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

By "giant flash dryer" do you mean tunnel dryer? The main difference is that one is the thing you cook your food in, and the other is the thing you use to cure your t-shirts.


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## RichardGreaves (Nov 7, 2006)

yoonique said:


> i have never dried a shirt in one of those big flash dryers before.
> 
> i wanted to know if it was possible for someone to dry a shirt in a standard cooking oven @ 300 degrees rather than a giant flash dryer.
> 
> can someone please tell me what the difference is between the flash dryer and cooking oven?


There is no reason that you can't leave a shirt in your home oven for hours. This wastes heat, but the shirt can't go rise above 300F degrees and it can't dry out like a turkey.









Mom's Oven









Flash with temperature control


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## RichardGreaves (Nov 7, 2006)

swissarmour said:


> hey guys im just wondering... what exactly do u all mean by flash drying does it just mean its fast? so most of these machines do they work via hot plates or how? because.. im just wondering since well apparently with this method theres ink involved... im barely getting into transfer papers...


Flash is a jargon word for partially cure. To only gel the ink to around 180F to 220F degrees on the platen, in registration so you can print other colors on the surface of dark shirts.


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## jimmi (May 16, 2009)

Hi ,
I am total newbie in t shirt printing....is that mean we still need to dry the t shirt even after the go through the flash unit?

TIA,
Jimmi


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

jimmi said:


> is that mean we still need to dry the t shirt even after the go through the flash unit?


Depends how long it spent under the flash, but in a commercial shop you wouldn't cure under the flash, so yes, it would still need to go through the conveyor.


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

Buy a pizza conveyor oven.


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## RichardGreaves (Nov 7, 2006)

*Curing textile inks WB & Plastisol*



jimmi said:


> ....is that mean we still need to dry the t shirt even after the go through the flash unit?


Most textile ink _*resins*_, (water based or plastisol) and the shirt - both have to be heated to 300°F to 320°F to be completely cured.

Plastisol is 100% solids and nothing evaporates so it cures faster than water-based inks. Plastisol is cured when all the liquid plasticizer is absorbed by the PVC resin, usually forming a film. Remember liquid, but NOT evaporation.

Like stencil exposure, textile ink can't be *"over cured".* With plastisol ink, once all the plasticizer has been absorbed by the PVC resin, you can keep heating the ink & shirt, (wasting your time and heat energy), 3 minutes or 30 minutes, or 3 days at 320°F - the *cure *will be the same.

80% of every gallon of WB ink has to be heated and evaporated into the environment. Lots of heat energy also leaves the shirt & ink with the liquid in the ink so it takes longer. 

Heat also has to _move all the way through the ink film_ to where the ink touches the shirt for complete cure. 

If you are flashing light colored inks on dark garments, water based inks take much longer to become gelled so they won't smear, but, there is very little film because 80% evaporated.

Heating the shirt above 320 degrees F. doesn't help much either, just as 3cm or 3 meters _out of bounds_, are both equally out of bounds in tennis.

If you over *HEAT* above 451 degrees F., the shirt starts on fire.

Think cure, not dry.

Excellent curing article on the Union Ink site:
General Information About Plastisol Inks


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