Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison
We keep seeing mention of better this or that with MH, has anyone printed the same exact artwork with each unit and seen any real measurable difference on press? That's a honest question, haven't seen anyone say one way or another so I am curious.
it would be hard to imagine anybody needing to use an MH to get a better dot.
It wouldn't be that easy to see once you finally got a good enough screen on press. My biggest issue is with things like happened yesterday. I had to shoot 5 screens of this one halftone image to get 1 good enough to go to press. So I not only wasted 4 screens, but the extra time it took to shoot 4 more, then the biggest killer of time is to reclaim and coat those to get them back into the production loop.
The Sun
*This is a long one*I've been holding off a bit. As I wanted to do a bunch of testing before I gave my thoughts.On the LED vs MH debate. I am only coming from the point of the unit we had ( Richmind Solarbeam, using a 10k bulb. ) To what we have now ( M&R I-image STE II with LED. )There are a few other variables, like using film with the MH, as we were doing & not using film with the LED, as we are now.As far as I can tell, the LED ( in our unit ) is having absolutely no problem fully curing/crosslinking, or zero slime/ residue on the squeegee side.....or how ever you want to put it. When I say fully crosslinked, I mean absolutely NO soft emulsion, except the image being rinsed out.-Emulsion: Kiwo ONE-COAT : SBQ with Diazohttp://www.kiwo.com/polycol-one-coat-1/1 coating -20% EOM-on average, based on 156-110-10k MH unit--156-T-white mesh : 48 sec.-150-S-yellow mesh : 90 sec.-M&R LED unit--156-T-white mesh : 27 sec.-150-S-yellow mesh : 55 sec.(*Thread jack*) SorryI also had the pleasure of doing some testing, pre-release of a new Kiwo emulsion, Multi-Tex that just hit the market this moth. Check it out!http://www.kiwo.com/polycol-multi-texIts looking very promising....... I still need to do a bit more testing. ( tho I did get 2k DC prints with it on one image & another 2k DC prints with a second print, that I feel I could have gotten another 1k prints out of it......Without hardener, with out post expose, with LED exposure )(*Back to it*)I have exposed just over 600 screens in the month we have had our M&R unit. Many of these screens have been on reorders, jobs that were burned on our MH & now our LED. I see no compromise in quality exposure with our LED unit.Many of these screens have also been, clean & save screens, ones we catalog & reprint ( some have already come back through the schedule ) cleaned multiple times. No problems. No lockups.A large amount of them have gone through the full process of reclame/recoat/reprint, many times. No problem. No lockups.I had screen up on press last week, it was a quick on the fly reburn for a DC job. The old screens were pulled off the shelf & had quite a bit of use on them already, but we went to press anyway. About mid way through the order one of the screens gets a heavy wipe-down & some of the small detail gets taken out. So I send the guys working on that press to an early lunch hoping to get as much time as I can before they get back for the screen to dry. It gets about an hour ( maybe ) I rush it along & get it on press. Not having that high of expectations, I'm expecting the worst, hoping for the best. Well that screen lasted another 800 prints being double stroked & when done with the order, I would say the screen had very little to no signs of breaking down. ( this was with Kiwo One-Coat emulsion, no hardener, no post exposure )I have also done a few low mesh with a very thick EOM, 400 micron stencil, & after getting my time dialed in the screen was not under exposed at all & still I was kind of holding the reg marks ( we use .5 line width for reg marks )I'm not saying it hasn't been without a bit of a learning curve, but nothing that didn't take 3 or less screens to get dialed in & this was just really the first few screens we shot of each mesh.I would agree there are some differences in having a single point light source to having a multi point source, & I feel you may see the biggest problems with this if you have the need/want to underexpose. Well maybe this all helps someone? Murphy37
Quote from: Underbase37 on May 24, 2015, 06:40:40 PM*This is a long one*I've been holding off a bit. As I wanted to do a bunch of testing before I gave my thoughts.On the LED vs MH debate. I am only coming from the point of the unit we had ( Richmind Solarbeam, using a 10k bulb. ) To what we have now ( M&R I-image STE II with LED. )There are a few other variables, like using film with the MH, as we were doing & not using film with the LED, as we are now.As far as I can tell, the LED ( in our unit ) is having absolutely no problem fully curing/crosslinking, or zero slime/ residue on the squeegee side.....or how ever you want to put it. When I say fully crosslinked, I mean absolutely NO soft emulsion, except the image being rinsed out.-Emulsion: Kiwo ONE-COAT : SBQ with Diazohttp://www.kiwo.com/polycol-one-coat-1/1 coating -20% EOM-on average, based on 156-110-10k MH unit--156-T-white mesh : 48 sec.-150-S-yellow mesh : 90 sec.-M&R LED unit--156-T-white mesh : 27 sec.-150-S-yellow mesh : 55 sec.(*Thread jack*) SorryI also had the pleasure of doing some testing, pre-release of a new Kiwo emulsion, Multi-Tex that just hit the market this moth. Check it out!http://www.kiwo.com/polycol-multi-texIts looking very promising....... I still need to do a bit more testing. ( tho I did get 2k DC prints with it on one image & another 2k DC prints with a second print, that I feel I could have gotten another 1k prints out of it......Without hardener, with out post expose, with LED exposure )(*Back to it*)I have exposed just over 600 screens in the month we have had our M&R unit. Many of these screens have been on reorders, jobs that were burned on our MH & now our LED. I see no compromise in quality exposure with our LED unit.Many of these screens have also been, clean & save screens, ones we catalog & reprint ( some have already come back through the schedule ) cleaned multiple times. No problems. No lockups.A large amount of them have gone through the full process of reclame/recoat/reprint, many times. No problem. No lockups.I had screen up on press last week, it was a quick on the fly reburn for a DC job. The old screens were pulled off the shelf & had quite a bit of use on them already, but we went to press anyway. About mid way through the order one of the screens gets a heavy wipe-down & some of the small detail gets taken out. So I send the guys working on that press to an early lunch hoping to get as much time as I can before they get back for the screen to dry. It gets about an hour ( maybe ) I rush it along & get it on press. Not having that high of expectations, I'm expecting the worst, hoping for the best. Well that screen lasted another 800 prints being double stroked & when done with the order, I would say the screen had very little to no signs of breaking down. ( this was with Kiwo One-Coat emulsion, no hardener, no post exposure )I have also done a few low mesh with a very thick EOM, 400 micron stencil, & after getting my time dialed in the screen was not under exposed at all & still I was kind of holding the reg marks ( we use .5 line width for reg marks )I'm not saying it hasn't been without a bit of a learning curve, but nothing that didn't take 3 or less screens to get dialed in & this was just really the first few screens we shot of each mesh.I would agree there are some differences in having a single point light source to having a multi point source, & I feel you may see the biggest problems with this if you have the need/want to underexpose. Well maybe this all helps someone? Murphy37We just tried out the new KIWO emulsion to, and we were coating 1/1 sharp side. They told us that we should start coating 2/1 or 2/2 round edge, which we started doing with our PHU, and we are getting really really great screens now. On our STE II we are exposing at 14-20 seconds, and on our richmond solar beak with a 7K light, we are exposing at 22 LU. We don't have an EOM meter, so can't chime in on our EOM, but i'm hoping to have one next month.
At FESPA I saw a LED that is sold by Saati USA, 300W and costs $500.It will work like a spot light.They say exposure for a pure photopolymer emulsion will be about 45 set at a lamp distance of 36", at this distance I can expose two 23X31" screens.I am ordering this unit.
Need more info please.I looked for this on saati sites. No joy....