In past issues, we’ve looked at various press-drive designs that move platens around the machine, the focus being on how well they function with respect to speed, smoothness and overall resistance to wear and service.

Just as poor-quality air can impede press performance and harm parts (see IMPRESSIONS, January 1998), “starving” your automatic of air can keep it from doing its best and possibly damage components or shorten their life.

From 30 to 50 feet or more in length and equipped with such exotic items as lasers and microprocessors, belt printers are screen printing’s most versatile automatic tools, able to spot- or bleed-print odd-shaped, either small or extremely large substrates with relatively high speed and a high degree of repeatability.

If the performance of your automatic isn’t up to par, the problem may not be with the press itself but with the air going into it.