CTS in the screen room?

[inkbrigade]

So I'm in the middle of designing a new screen room. I'm wondering if the cts can be in there.
You would think, but I know our epson 4800 doesn't like being in a room with low humidity. It causes the heads to clog. Would I have the same issue with say an M&R direct to screen?

[244]

So I'm in the middle of designing a new screen room. I'm wondering if the cts can be in there.
You would think, but I know our epson 4800 doesn't like being in a room with low humidity. It causes the heads to clog. Would I have the same issue with say an M&R direct to screen?

All ink based CTS systems use a water based UV blocker so being in a low humidity environment like a screen room is not optimal. You can do it with ours but its not optimal

[pwalsh]

So I'm in the middle of designing a new screen room. I'm wondering if the cts can be in there.
You would think, but I know our epson 4800 doesn't like being in a room with low humidity. It causes the heads to clog. Would I have the same issue with say an M&R direct to screen?

Jamie:  Low humidity conditions are a real challenge with any aqueous based inkjet systems such as Epson printers or the new M&R I-Image. Under these conditions you are more likely to have challenges with ink drying in the print heads. For this reason I wouldn’t recommend installing any CTS system or Inkjet printer it in the same direct area as where you are drying and storing your coated screens. 

I have seen a lot of screen departments with their CST set up in a clean, safe light and air conditioned area and a separate screen dying and storage room.  This allows you to optimize separate environment for screen storage, screen imaging, and other screen making operations.

[screenprintguy]

Jamie we biult two new rooms for our new CTS set up. I will shoot you a vid when I get a chance. Basically the first room isa dedicated room foe the I-image with all led lighting no uv. Enough room for a desk as well so it will be my office as well. We put a double door in to get the I-IMAGE in it's huge. Isolated circuit for the electrical for the I-IMAGE.
Then on the back side of that room we built a new screen room with a door out to the main shop and then a door to access from the cts room. Non UV led lighting too. Nice and bright and no harm to the emulsion. We put the exposure unit right outside of the door of the screen room, I'm still debating on putting it inside or not. So far the I-Image has sped up the imaging so much this past week that I can see keeping all post cts steps as close as possible will let it all flow super fast. We are adding a dedicated wash out booth just for imaged screens outside of this area as well as moving our development Tank next to the relocated exposure unit to take exposed screens right into water from exposure. That's one thing that may keep the exposure unit outside of the room. It's looking to really add efficiency to our process in the new year. We are small staffed like you guys so adding the I-image to our set up was to take our proficiency level up a few notches and it's already Looking like all that and a bag of chips. Oh and you really will lock and load on press it's pretty awesome man. We are very happy so far.

[JBLUE]

For you guys that have one of these and Rich how do you linearize the print head settings? There has to be some dot gain as the ink is laid down on the emulsion and it has to be different with every brand of emulsion too. Do you have to adjust the settings by eye or is there a way to do a density test to make sure that a 10% dot is truly a 10% or close to that on the emulsion surface?

[screenprintguy]

Our tech taught us as he was calibrating adjusting how many channels print in different environments and dot size. We made different environments for different print styles, emulsions, and coating techniques. We went through several experimental screens on training day but that is a tiny price to pay to dial in the settings for your particular needs. I can say reprinting a screen that we had done with film a couple weks prior rendered a huge improvement in detail witb the I-image.TThe software as well as the actual printer give you a ton of control.

[inkbrigade]

Thanks for the replies everybody. Looks like the cts is getting its own room!

[Admiral]

Our dark room is sectioned off almost into 2 rooms.  One is the cts/computer and exposure unit, other is coating room.

The coating room has 2 doors that hold 2 screen racks for drying, has a heater and dehumidifier is just outside it.  It also has an exhaust.

Basically the room is 30-40% humidity and the drying cabinet is like 15%, 85 degrees, lots of air movement.

[244]

For you guys that have one of these and Rich how do you linearize the print head settings? There has to be some dot gain as the ink is laid down on the emulsion and it has to be different with every brand of emulsion too. Do you have to adjust the settings by eye or is there a way to do a density test to make sure that a 10% dot is truly a 10% or close to that on the emulsion surface?

our tech will help you set up different environments during install which will address your questions. One thing to be Ware of is you will print 2% dots and you will see them on the print so some adjustments will have to be made to make a print look like you are used to.