Screen Life Cycle

[spotcolorsupply]

How many cycles through reclaim would you expect out of a good quality screen? (Newman or static)

Do you restretch when the tension drops below a certain level, or wait till they pop?

Seems I have heard anywhere from 15 to 30 cycles, and just wanted to see what the group thought.

[Doug B]

  Funny, just this morning I threw away a static wooden frame that we got usedat least 18 years ago. We use them until they pop or drop. Even a loose screen
can occasionally be used for something.

[3Deep]

Same here use screen until they pop, even the loose ones I can still use for simple one and two color not so tight registration jobs.

[GKitson]

We have 110/80, 140/64  mesh that is imaged every 2nd or 3rd business day and have in service dates from Feb 2010 and even a few older than that.  33-34 Newtons on M-3 roller frames, no ink stains, an occasional mesh war wound in a non-critical area which equals hundreds of  cycles with about 80 impressions on an average job around here. 

So do the math and we have a a crap load of impressions in our screen life cycle, take care of your screens and they take care of you.

My 2 cents....

[GraphicDisorder]

We have screens probably 5 years old that are used weekly at least once.... we don't ditch a screen until it becomes a issue with printing or its ripped/busted.

[mk162]

Wait, you guys don't keep every screen you've done since the beginning of time and catalog them so when a customer comes back in they don't have to pay to setup the job again?

--Every customer that places a reorder 5 years later.

[dirkdiggler]

Still printing on some 305s that I have had for over 6 years!  We use them till they break!