Impressions - January 2019 - 48

A thick emulsion coating
such as this is needed for
thicker ink deposits.

2. Correct Mesh Selection: Always
take a moment to look at an imaged film
and select the best screen mesh needed
for the job.The ideal mesh count would
not be so high that it requires a double
pass or so low that the print would lose
fine details.
I've had the privilege of visiting many
large shops to help them improve quality
and make more money.They all have one
thing in common: "hungry" machines,
or screen-printing presses that can "chew
through" 3,000-4,000 or more shirts per
day. Keeping these machines "fed" and
running smoothly is critical.
Imagine having to do 80,000 prints
every 24 hours; it can't be achieved if you
don't select the best mesh for a particular design. Choosing too fine of a mesh
will result in having to either reburn the
screen to a more open mesh, select a softer squeegee or double-stroke the print.
Regardless, it'll cost time and money, so
selecting the correct mesh the first time
is critical.
3.Tight Mesh: While the correct mesh
count is important, equally important is
tight mesh tension. Tight screen mesh
can be an accurate gauge of a shop's print
quality.
The mesh opening is the key. Mesh
selection is instrumental in determining
the mesh opening, but tighter mesh has a
larger opening. Imagine a rubber band;
the further you stretch it, the thinner it
gets.The same thing happens when you
properly stretch screen-mesh fibers; they
get thinner and open the screen mesh to
allow ink to flow easier.
Imagine trying to cut cheese with a
thick, old and loose wire; it would be
much harder than if you were using a fine
wire that is tight. Now, imagine trying
to cut a slice of cheese every 4 seconds
with a loose wire.This also would be very
difficult, but it would be much easier with
a tight wire.Tight screen mesh functions
the same way.
Large shops know this and make it
standard practice to maintain their mesh
tensions. Doing so can make a job profitable in varying degrees. We're talking
about the difference between a car payment or a house payment - and maybe
P.48

The detail of this artwork shows highdensity ink used on the red borders, swirl
and yin/yang icon of this print.This
amount of detail is possible using correct
prepress steps.Artwork reproduced by
International Coatings by permission of
David Edward Byrd using AXEON nonPVC 1200 series color-mixing system.

even a second house payment if you've
been doing this correctly for a certain
amount of time.
Also, the tighter the mesh, the less
pressure required for the squeegee to transfer ink onto the substrate. Additionally,
the amount of off contact needed with
a properly stretched screen is far less and
the overall quality will show.
4. Correct Stencil Thickness: Have
you ever felt a screen? Doing so enables
you to gauge mesh tightness and emulsion
thickness. I do this when I visit shops
because it gives me an idea of what type
of shop or work I'm encountering.
Why? I can take the same sample gallon
of, say, white ink to two shops and get
two completely different print results. No
two shops are the same, but there should
be some similarities.

i m p r e s s i o n s m a g . c o m JANUARY 2019

Are the screen meshes at least in the
same ballpark with regard to tightness and
is there some type of emulsion gasket? The
thicker the emulsion gasket, the thicker the ink deposit. It always amazes me
when I see someone start coating screens
correctly, only to scrape off all that extra
emulsion at the last moment that they so
carefully applied. Many screen printers
do this to save money - so they think.
When printing the design, they think
they need to double pass the squeegee to
get some opacity from the ink. However, this extra step potentially could have
been avoided if they would have left the
emulsion on the screen.
Emulsion easily can regulate the amount
of desired ink on a print. If you want a
small ink deposit, simply apply a small
amount of emulsion on the screen.The
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Impressions - January 2019

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