pad printing halftone film

[Doug B]

  I'll bite. Where can I get a halftone screen at a reasonable price? All American
has a $50.00 minimum BUT they want $31.00 for shipping a piece of 4x4 film! 

[Sbrem]

Just out of curiosity, is it like the old halftone screens we used with process cameras? Where the dots are soft? Or, why not just make the halftone film first? I've never done any pad printing, so I'm just curious...

Steve

[Doug B]

  Very similar but a 90% 200-300lpi. I would never get an accurate one with an Epson 3000.
Used to post-expose plates to make microscopic dimples where the ink can accumulate
to be picked by the pad.

[royster13]

Maybe a longshot....But maybe Ebay or Amazon....

[ebscreen]

Wasn't someone on here asking for a manual for a imagesetter recently?

Do pad printing suppliers not sell them? Or, last resort, check other service
bureaus for their capabilities.

[Inkworks]

300LPI 80% is what we use, pm me a mailing address and I'll mail you a 4x4" chunk if you want, free. I had a 18" x 24" section output on an image setter so I didn't have to pay the silly prices the padprint supply houses charge for them. Each chunk lasts me about 6 months or so before it eventually gets too beat up.

[Sbrem]

I was going to recommend a service bureau as Inkworks suggests. Cool concept, pretty old school, like us apparently.

Steve

[balloonguy]

300LPI 80% is what we use, pm me a mailing address and I'll mail you a 4x4" chunk if you want, free. I had a 18" x 24" section output on an image setter so I didn't have to pay the silly prices the padprint supply houses charge for them. Each chunk lasts me about 6 months or so before it eventually gets too beat up.

Do you print that yourself or did you have it done?
thanks,
Matt

[Inkworks]

I had it done at a film output shop that had a true imagesetter, 300LPI is way too fine for any epson or the like.

[ZooCity]

Wait,  do you just need the actual halftone film,  as used with stat cameras and the like? I'm not certain but I think we have some at our shop.  I can check tomorrow.

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[Inkworks]

Generally with pad printing, you expose the image, then expose again with a halftone film, the tone in the print doesn't really show to the naked eye, but keeps the pad from pushing the ink out of the image area when it picks up the print. when you develop or etch the plate, the dots get undercut and you end up with much closer to a 95-99% black tone. 200lpi 90% or 300lpi 80% are good ones to start with.

[ZooCity]

Ah, I see.  That's interesting being able to expose the plate twice.

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[Inkworks]

If you can get film from an image setter you can just output the image with the 1/2 tone in it already and expose once, but it really isn't worth it, I print all my padprint film on an old Epson 3000 without issue and get exceptional clarity on small detailed logos .

[balloonguy]

I had it done at a film output shop that had a true imagesetter, 300LPI is way too fine for any epson or the like.

I tried to run one on my oyo. The halftone is WAY smaller than the one I got from the plate supplier. I think I may try again but with only 200 lpi or maybe a lower percentage...

[Inkworks]

We had a full-on Agfa setter with the cartridge developing machine at a previous job, talk about being spoiled. that said, I'm fine now with my Epson 3000 and 7880