Critique my print.

[Dottonedan]

I think we need a specific section intended for just critiquing prints. LOL.
Dot-Tone art, Dot-Tone seps. 


2 colors. White and Navy.
230 mesh. 55lpi.


Base two strokes flash,  Navy one stroke.


I'm getting kinda lucky in that the halftones are coming out as good as they are with the bulb exp unit.


While the art is challenging in the center where you see a lot of banding, there are very thin halftone vertical lines intended to be in the print, along with some other textures. We did pretty good getting that in two colors.  Adding to this pattern effect, is the screen mesh. It almost goes unnoticible and a customer might think it's part of the art intent.


Not the garment or art. I've checked.  I have this printed on a pellon as well and the exact same issue is shown in same areas. This would be of no issue if printing solid art or maybe even lower lpi like 45 or 35. As I go up in lpi, I see it more and more.

I think a small part of it is the exposure. (this is 50lpi on 230).  But some of this could be in the stretching as well. I've seen this a lot in my travels installing and exposing at shops all over. ALL of those issues were on static frames. Most times (if it's your mesh), it's most noticeable in the the low % tones. Here, it's noticeable at top left and right of the inside of the S.  This goes across from 5% into the 40,60 and up to solid.


I will review coating techniques (have't gotten to that yet), They prob did like they do on all screens and did a 2/1
but I think it's more of a inconsistant stretch.  We have a lot of mixed screens from different suppliers so it's too late to determine where it came from and I've only gotten 3 new screens from Spot Color ( to test out and haven't used yet) so It's not them.



Does this look like mesh stretch issue to you all?

[Colin]

First off:  Love the design.

When you look at your films, is there any pattern developing?  Is a full dot formed? Maybe some smaller dots not fully formed?  Hard to tell when I zoom in on the grainy pic.

I know here with my Iimage and Starlight, its pretty darn good.  But I will still add diazo to my emulsion for the anti halation properties so I get finer dots and cleaner dots.

I have seen lots of screens that are stretched in one direction - pulled from 2 of 4 sides - that will show what you are seeing.

Hold the un coated screen up and get a light source to reflect off of it.  You can usually see the weave patterns and can more readily see any change in direction.

[blue moon]

I think we need a specific section intended for just critiquing prints. LOL.
Dot-Tone art, Dot-Tone seps. 


2 colors. White and Navy.
230 mesh. 55lpi.


Base two strokes flash,  Navy one stroke.


I'm getting kinda lucky in that the halftones are coming out as good as they are with the bulb exp unit.


While the art is challenging in the center where you see a lot of banding, there are very thin halftone vertical lines intended to be in the print, along with some other textures. We did pretty good getting that in two colors.  Adding to this pattern effect, is the screen mesh. It almost goes unnoticible and a customer might think it's part of the art intent.


Not the garment or art. I've checked.  I have this printed on a pellon as well and the exact same issue is shown in same areas. This would be of no issue if printing solid art or maybe even lower lpi like 45 or 35. As I go up in lpi, I see it more and more.

I think a small part of it is the exposure. (this is 50lpi on 230).  But some of this could be in the stretching as well. I've seen this a lot in my travels installing and exposing at shops all over. ALL of those issues were on static frames. Most times (if it's your mesh), it's most noticeable in the the low % tones. Here, it's noticeable at top left and right of the inside of the S.  This goes across from 5% into the 40,60 and up to solid.


I will review coating techniques (have't gotten to that yet), They prob did like they do on all screens and did a 2/1
but I think it's more of a inconsistant stretch.  We have a lot of mixed screens from different suppliers so it's too late to determine where it came from and I've only gotten 3 new screens from Spot Color ( to test out and haven't used yet) so It's not them.



Does this look like mesh stretch issue to you all?

could you print navy first and eliminate the flash? Would print faster. . .

pierre

[ScreenFoo]

The original art could help quite a bit trying to tell you what's wrong with the print. 

If the issue is the 'picket fence' type moire (if that wasn't part of the design), I've seen it happen often with the same HT angle and frequency on top of each other.  IME if the garment weave is interfering with the first color like that white, it can make a pattern that's even worse with the darker overprint, which tends to jump out at you contrast wise.  And that's even if your art, screens, and stencils are just fine.

FWIW the solid white areas look a bit chunky.  But I don't think I'd do much better with a standard 230.
This is one of those things I'd use a 150S for. 

[mk162]

i've seen that pattern before, it was a clogged nozzle on the film printer.  Did you print this film sideways?  It was very hard to see on the film itself.

The other thing is your squeegee edge. 

Other than that it's really not bad at all.

[Flash Ink]

It looks amazing. We had that happen to some of our heavy halftone prints, our lead guy called it mosaic. We started giving our screens a little more washout with a little more pressure and it got rid of it.

[toofastnichols]

I would of used three screens a base white , flash then navy , then flash with a bump white , the base on a 200 the navy on  a 305 and the bump on a 230 .
the moray you got showing was the halftones on to low of mesh (atleast thats what we have found out at our shop)

[Colin]

50lpi on a 230 should hold the detail just fine.  Unless other factors were at play.

[Dottonedan]

50lpi on a 230 should hold the detail just fine.  Unless other factors were at play.

Ther are other factors. I just can't get to all of our issues at one time. Would overwhelm them.
I make a change, get that to work and then wait another week or three before adding another.

A lot of our changes have to come before our jump in jobs coming in. We expect to be very busy in the next few weeks.

I haven't tackled the screen room much at all but there are a lot of little things there alone.
Mesh type, old screens with low tension, Exp. source, proper time. Emulsion, size of exp. unit, room enlargement. Emulsion type.

The wash out area needs beefed up.  Adding a 2nd tub to have one for reclaim and one for washout. Adding a wall, racks etc.