Nice work, let ask you this Dan how smooth is the top colors on that 60% base, I've done that in the pass and got kind of a grainy look with the top colors. Maybe my base might have been a little to thick or the wrong white ink for halftone base, but all in all it did smooth out once I reduce the flash on the base ink, but the top color was just a bite weak.
So, a little of why we tend to print multi color jobs packeted into 5 screens and are getting good at it.
We try to run most of the multi color work on our 6 color auto (one head taken up with the flash). Leaves us 5 colors. It happens to be, that most of the art/jobs we get in, can be
forced down into this color count without sacrificing
too much. I know when I have to take a job over to our larger press.
So, for the larger press, the owner couldn’t pass up on a great deal for the Challenger lll 18 color, 22 stations with 3 flashes. Great press for a great price...But, it’s 3 phase, and our current building is not zoned for 3 phase and I’m told it will cost our Company, 80k to have it put in our area from the city. The other building, already has 3 phase...but we are right in town right now and the owner wants to keep us here until he can get past another project he has been working on (building another building for another business. So it’s frustrating to take a job to another location where you don’t have everything you might need.
We have to pack up all inks, screens, art proofs, and drive 10 min to the other location and print larger color counts. The owner owns the other building also, but it’s not any bigger than the one we are in and that press just sits there not getting used. IN fact, it’s the same size. So, he wants to either expand that building...or build a 2nd one right next to it. One for offices and R7D, and another for production.
We “plan”to move there, but that has been said a year before I got here, and I’ve been here a year now. So, after two years, I assume they are in no rush and don’t really feel the need just yet.
Now to answer your questions.
The press operator really does get a great feel and a great look on the print. He’s really really good. Due to only having one white, he will most times, Print, Print, flash, bring it back again and Print, Print Flash again. THIS, has given us THE best whites. For the best prints, it’s what he’s got to do. Now keep in mind, we are not always swamped with work, and the quantities are not over 200-300 units "usually”. So he can do that.
There are other times where he will just Print, Flash Print, but with no top white, just that, can come out rougher and not as vibrant and smooth.
This is usually almost always on a 230 mesh for the base white. (Need to hold detail).
Often times, (if your base is too thick, or the mesh is lower, and you try to do halftones on the base...AND, you have thin inks going on top, you will see what I would call a penetration of the white halftones showing through the print. This is often due to the inks just being too transparent for the base and size and coverage of the dots. Think of it like trying to print on brail using a thin ink. You can hide that a little, with less top color pressure and more ink lay down...but that also might throw off your color blend that you need with top colors. It just works for us.
No bragging here, because THIS, it not just all me. I’ve been here over a year now, and I’ve only had to revise art because it wasn’t working...
1 time so far. (crossing fingers). That was on a 4 color process jobs where I came black in and added a flesh color on top of my existing colors...to control it better. So it’s been working out that ALL jobs, are able to be run and worked out ON PRESS in a short amount of time. Like most times, it takes 15 min-30 min on tougher jobs, to get it more narrowed in. Changing out an ink, using a stiffer squeegee, faster stroke, lighter pressure etc.
Now granted, It’s probably more vital that I be there, to guide in the direction of what I’m looking for (only because I know what’s in the seps on screen) and what I have intended dit to do. But I’m not there by his side all of the time. More like, he will call me out to show off his latest improvement change...and I rarely have to suggest a different direction. Sometime, but not always. We are a good team as far as printing and seps and working a job out goes. He’s willing to receive my suggestions, he has an eagerness about him to get that better looking print...and does it, and see’s the benefits right away. Other times, I rely on him for some of the problem solving in the operation of the press as I’m not a press operator. However we do it, it’s been working. We also rarely refer to the color prints (for color direction). I go back in and refer to the on screen image. The color prints, not matter how much I calibrate, cannot be as accurate as viewing on screen.
