TSB
screen printing => Screen Making => Topic started by: T Shirt1 on March 23, 2012, 12:40:58 PM
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We have been using it since we bought this place over 18 years ago. The current price of Ulano CDF4 has gone through the roof. Anyone using something similar without the hefty price tag? I'd prefer to stay with cap film instead of emulsion.
Thanks,
steve
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I use the Ulano ez-film capilary without any problems at all. Price is great too.
I get mine from Techsupport SPS - Bill is a great guy.
http://techsupportsps.com/store/ulano-ez-film.html (http://techsupportsps.com/store/ulano-ez-film.html)
Frank
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I've played around with it but for us, direct emulsion is about 1/5th the cost. I like it, don't get me wrong, I have some on hand just in case we ever have to get a screen from bare mesh to the press in as fast as possible, but we don't use it very often.
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I used cap film for my first 10 years in business, I switched to direct emulsion 2 years ago and have not looked back. My screens wash out and reclaim better with the direct emulsion, the fact its cheaper is only a bonus. Just my experience.
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we use cap film for gels and hd only.. Why, do you prefer cap film for every job? the direct emulsion technology today is incredible. not to mention time and cost savings..
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we use cap film for gels and hd only.. Why, do you prefer cap film for every job? the direct emulsion technology today is incredible. not to mention time and cost savings..
Paradigm thinking. Cap film is all we've ever used. Wouldn't even know where to start with emulsion..............
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we could all help you with that. it would be a easy transition and you will probably never look back as someone stated.. keep it in mind.
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what's the harm in investing $100 in trying it. You can get a gallon and a scoop coater for about that. I would recommend an AWT scoop coater, those have worked great for us over the years.
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Tshirt1, do not be afraid of the change, when i decided to try direct emulsion all i did was search for a few youtube videos on coating screens and was off and running. My first screens came out great with no issues, i did a step wedge to narrow down my exposure times and was on my way to happier screen making. I was previously using the CDFQT cap films and went with a high solids direct emulsion. Chromablue was my first direct emulsion and i've tried others since but prefer the chromablue over the others I 've tried. I also use the AWT scoop coater and its worked well.
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I found a scoop coater we had made several years ago - still in the box. Funny looking think. About 18" long.........
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Cap film is the bomb for graphic printing. We switched over to it at the Nameplate/Overlay/Membrane shop and the print quality jumped up on tiny text and super fine detail even though we had a ~$20,000 auto coater. I believe this is due to the extremely low Rz factor of the substrate side of the emulsion, something that is very difficult to achieve with scoop coating even using the glisten method or secondary skin coats. Cap film also makes achieving decent eom a no brainer, although I admit the glisten method does a good job of that too!
I'd think that because textile printing means printing on inherently "rough" surfaces, that the low Rz values of Cap film would probably be lost, rendering it a no-gain for use on clothing.