Flash Cure Units
Affordable, professional spot cure units
Flash cure units or spot cure units as they are also known are special infra red dryers that are absolutely essential in a screen printing business. After each colour is printed onto a t-shirt or other product, the flash cure unit is used to dry off, or "flash" the top layer of ink using an infra red heat source. This stage is not the final cure.
The infra red heat is essentially simply causing the top layer of the plastisol ink to gel sufficiently for the next colour to be printed. The Vastex range of spot cure units are compact in design and a perfect companion for business start-ups, home-based businesses, traveling printers and dedicated screen printing shops.

The range includes two basic types of flash cure units. The entry level spot cure unit, which is ideal for start-up t-shirt printers, is the F-Flash cure unit pictured on the right. This flash cure unit is available with an optional rotary table to allow the user to fully cure printed t-shirts off the press and is an easy and affordable add-on for shops that cannot yet afford a conveyor tunnel dryer.
The rotary table that is available for the F-Flash, overcomes the problem of slowing down production on the press while waiting for t-shirts to cure fully and also protects the platens from getting excessively hot. While the platens on Vastex screen printing equipment are made of steel, other brands may only offer wooden platens that could become warped through overheating. Either way, platens on t-shirt printing machines are not designed to withstand the prolonged high temperatures required to fully cure a plastisol print and the rotary table is the ideal way to use a flash cure unit to fully cure plastisol ink until your budget will allow you to invest in a tunnel dryer.
If you choose to use a flash cure unit to do the final cure, we highly recommend that temperatures are carefully checked to ensure the optimum curing temperature has been reached and that the item is cured for long enough to avoid a breakdown of the print later on. Using a flash cure unit to do the final cure is perhaps better suited to smaller image areas (well within the image area of the unit) and prints that do not have large solid areas.
The F-Flash cure unit is provided with a 3 year heater warranty, height adjustable stand and a head leveling feature.
Redflash - Premium Flash Cure Units
The premium Redflash is available with different power levels for the more demanding, high production screen printing environment. The high output infra red heater option can flash cure plastisol in as little as four seconds and there are options to upgrade the Redflash to automatically flash the printed item and swing away to avoid scorching. For complete peace of mind, the heater is guaranteed for 10 years. A heavy duty stand and castors can also be added.
Finally, the Airflash spot cure unit is an upgrade to the Redflash infra red dryer that allows the user to use air only, full infra red heat and air or simply to modulate the air speed and infra red drying. Airflash cure units work well with plastisol inks, water-based inks, discharge inks and is a good option for delicate garments.
The standard Redflash cure unit has an infra red heater element that measures 46 x 46cm, but this can be upgraded to 46 x 61cm. In addition, the infra red heating element can be upgraded from the standard 2600 watts to a high output of 3500 watts. This allows the unit to spot cure a garment much quicker than normal.
The Redflash must be upgraded to a heavy duty stand when larger infra red heating element, autoflash or airflash options are selected.
The autoflash upgrade allows the spot cure unit to have a pre-set flash cure time programmed and once this time has elapsed, the head of the flash cure unit will swing away from the garment to avoid scorching.
The Redflash can also be upgraded to have a forced air system fitted which allows the ink to be cured whilst the garment is cooled. This helps to prevent the high temperature heat needed to cure plastisol from melting, shrinking or burning materials such as nylon, polyester or other heat-sensitive fabrics.
The autoflash infra red heater does not switch off when the head swings away from the garment.
The Redflash with airflash upgrade shown to the right is fitted with a standard stand, but has optional castors for easy movement.
Features and upgrades
- Single phase mains supply
- Optional rotary table (F-Flash flash cure units only)
- High power heater upgrade (Redflash spot cure units only)
- Forced air upgrade (Redflash spot cure unit only)
- Auto swivel head (Redflash spot cure unit only)
- Up to 10 year heater warranty
The standard specifications of the Vastex flash cure units are as follows:
| F-Flash | Redflash | Airflash | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heater warranty | 3 years | 10 years | 10 years |
| Defect warranty | 3 years | 3 years | 3 years |
| Warm up time | 15 minutes | 6 minutes | 10 minutes |
| Heater wattage | 1750 watts | 2000 - 3500 watts | 3500 - 4300 watts |
| Heater size | 46 x 46cm | 46 x 46 or 46 x 61cm | 46 x 46 or 46 x 61cm |
| Height | 79 - 119cm | 79 - 119cm | 96 - 137cm |
| Height (heavy duty stand) | n/a | 89 - 109cm | 107 - 127cm |
| Legs | Standard | Standard | Standard |
| Locking castors | Optional | Optional | Optional |
| Main supply | Single phase | Single phase | Single phase |
Product resources:
Specification sheet (Acrobat PDF file)
Operation manual F-Flash(Acrobat PDF file)
Operation manual Red Flash(Acrobat PDF file)
General price list (Acrobat PDF file)



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