"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
Recommendations based on my shop's previous troubles:- Give your screens an extra coat of emulsion. We coat 2/1 round side.- Burn for 75% longer than you are now for discharge/wb screens. Aquasol HV has a very wide exposure latitude and with good films you can push it pretty far before it locks up. We almost doubled our exposure time on a 10k MH unit and the image still opens beautifully.- Use some type of reclaimable hardener, Murakami makes one called MS Hardener. We soak our screens with it and throw them in the sun for a bit.We use Aquasol HVP without diazo and no longer have any issues with screen breakdown, even on very long runs. I know this doesn't pertain to the Starlight specifically, but you should see a major difference regardless of the exposure unit you are using. We've also done test runs without the hardener and haven't seen breakdown with the longer burn times, but we use it anyways as a safeguard.
Brett do you have trouble reclaiming screens after you add hardener to it? I know there are different types of hardener, one that can be reclaimed and ones that permanently lock up the emulsion. We usually don't do over 200-300 prints so its not like we expect it to last 5k impressions.
As mentioned, Murakami MS Hardener will leave the screen reclaimable. I often recommend using our ER-605 or Super Strip at double strength to help soften the emulsion. Dip tanks work very well for this purpose. One area that also helps a pure photopolymer in the reclaiming process with an emulsion like Aquasol HVP is to post expose the screen. SBQ sensitizer remains sensitive after development. If you hit it with Screen Opener, MEK, Acetone, Mineral Spirits, you can flash these underexposed sensitizers and make reclaiming difficult. Post exposing helps cross link all sensitizer for an easier screen reclaim. Too often emulsion is underexposed and if not post exposed it can be difficult to reclaim pure photopolymer emulsions. For extremely hard to reclaim screens, you can apply Murakami HR-700 caustic haze remover to the emulsion on both sides of the screen, (Always wear personnel safety equipment). Let it sit for 5 minutes, rinse off carefully with a hose to avoid splash back. Then put it in a 2x strength dip tank solution, or apply emulsion remover with sponge to soften emulsion for reclaiming.Alan