"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
I've been back in forth a few times but settled, once again, on Aquasol HVP (pink instead of blue). It's a photopolymer that has excellent water resistance, if you need it, with proper expo and post-exposure and high solids. You must, must, must, have your exposures and resolution process absolutely dialed to run halftones. If you're not going higher than 55 lpi it is an excellent singular emulsion. Kiwo One Coat is very similar and has more of "soft" feel to it, a bit easier to reclaim and resolve and cleans off a little better from the mesh. I love dual cures as well. Proclaim from Ulano was great, as was Kiwo's Poly Z which had a luxuriously low rz value to the finished stencil, printed so smooth. But I don't care for the 2.5 ish ltu exposure times and the shelf life, and the mixing of the diazo. For 90% of what we do, a photopolymer is just dandy. Dual cure cap film is the bees knees in certain situations requiring very consistent stencil thickness and high detail. Any high-end emulsion is really going to perform well compared to a similar spec from mfg to mfg. The big difference I see in photopolymer v. dual cure is latitude. As in, photopoly has very little and dual cure has a lot. Photopolymers are very "on or off". You either got it right or you didn't, more or less. To this end I confidently shoot, soak and resolve with our 3000psi pressure washer. This goes for high eom, big open area images and thin eom halftones and fine lines. In short, I like the workflow you get with photopolymers and I like the crazy resolution dual cures provide.
Sonny i figured this thread would pull you out of the weeds. The shirt is on its way (i remembered) just getting things dailed in, been a little busy with family matters.That was Medium womens right?
Does anyone here have any experience with Ulano's TLX diazo emulsion?
Two things. 1. Not so much the emulsion as the exposure unit.2. Not so much the carrier as getting a firm adhesion to the screen of the art.With regards to detail and number 1 an expensive exposure unit is not necessarily better. With regards to detail and number 2 a Direct to Screen unit would all but eliminate any loss regardless of the light source.The key to remember here is that there is not a single solution to the problem, but a combination of parameters that must be understood. This industry has failed the end user by not educating you on the parameters that affect your day to day operations.I am thinking of writing a series on these parameters that take into account that no 2 shops are the same, but the desired end result is.