Glossary → Cure tunnel / conveyor dryer

Cure tunnel / conveyor dryer.

a heated tunnel that cures prints as a belt carries them through

Inline curing hardware: a variable-speed belt carries printed pieces through a heated chamber, so dwell is set by chamber length and belt speed rather than by an operator holding a press closed. That is the split from a flat heat press, which cures one piece at a time by contact and pressure, while the tunnel runs a stream of them under infrared or forced hot air. Shops profile a dryer with a probe whose wires contact the ink directly, because it is the ink film that has to reach cure temperature, not the air around it. Trust the panel reading instead and a whole shift goes through undercured, looking finished right up to the first wash, which is a day's output back as returns and a reprint.

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