“The new larger vacuum pallet offers garment screen printers a quick, easy way to diversify into printing signage, bumper stickers and posters on corrugated, foamed or magnetic stock, as well as paper, cardboard and paper-thin plastics down to 10 mil” says Mark Vasilantone, president.
The all-steel pallet contains hundreds of perforations across a 25-by-36-inch (64-by-91-centimeter) suction grid, holding materials with vacuum more securely than possible with glue or quick stretch. It is offered self-powered in 120V or 240V models with integral blower or with a universal hose adapter for connection to a customer-supplied shop vacuum or central vacuum system.
Equipped with a leveling feature to assure even transfer of ink, the pallet allows printing on flat stock slightly larger than the pallet itself, and can withstand the heat of repeated flash cure cycles.
It is mounted as standard on a heavy-duty pallet arm that slides onto the rotor arm of Vastex V-2000HD series presses, and is secured in place using two lock knobs. It can also be mounted to the pallet arms of other manual presses having adequate weight capacity.
"The vacuum pallet gives garment printing shops a low-cost way to create an additional income stream from existing clubs, schools, teams and other garment customers, while attracting new customers needing flat screen printing services," says Vasilantone.
The company also offers a smaller 18-by-24-inch (46-by-61-centimeter) vacuum pallet that can be utilized on both Vastex V2000HD and lighter-duty V1000 presses, in addition to 50 specialized non-vacuum pallets for screen printing on long sleeves, pockets, legs, zippered garments, umbrellas, hats, koozies and other textiles and hard goods. Square and trapezoidal pallets in a range of sizes allow printing on infant wear to XXL garments, as well as all-over printing.
In addition to screen printing presses for industrial to entry-level applications, Vastex manufactures athletic numbering attachments, infrared conveyor dryers, direct-to-garment conveyor dryers, flash cure units, screen exposing units, screen drying cabinets, washout booths and complete screen printing shop systems, and offers a comprehensive range of training classes for entry level, intermediate and advanced screen printers.