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Need help removing old ink

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:07 pm
by zebra
Hello,

My wife has purchased pad & screen printing business a while back. We are still on our learning curve so please bear with us.

We've got a customer who's making electrical enclosures - they have been a long customer of the printing business. The enclosures are generic aluminium (or some alloy) boxes and we only have to print some artwork (dials, text - that kind of thing).

They have changed the design recently and would want us not only to print newly made enclosures but also *re-print* some few hundreds of older ones.

Now here's the thing. The boxes were printed two-three years back by previous owners using some ink for metal surfaces and ever since it had cured a bit too hard so that we are unable to remove the ink using aceton or any similar stuff bought in local DIY store!

Neither customer would accept them scratched or polished. Since this is kinda old customer I was stupid enough to rush and say 'no problem - 15 mins job' to gain their confidence but you know the rest of the story.

We spent some long hours trying different solvents for paint removal (all from local diy stores) but they are mostly for household use (flooring, walls, etc) and are not effective enough for the job.

What do you guys-gurus out there use to tackle the old cured paint? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

PS: We cannot burn the ink as boxes have been fully assembled with electrical stuff inside them !!! :(

Re: Need help removing old ink

Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 2:41 pm
by d fleming
Most likely your time will cost more than a new box. How are you going to print them already assembled? Print stickers to fit over old print and tell them when those boxes are used up you can go back to direct print on flat unassembled part blanks.