Vapor Barrier Doors

[ebscreen]

Anyone use them? I've been wanting something between our washout/develop "wet" area and our dry/coat/image
area. Seems like the vinyl strip doors would do the job and require a fair bit of effort to leave open, but also it seems
like they'd get super annoying, and maybe drag across clean screens, etc. Any experience?

[tonypep]

I've used both. We have the vapor doors to separate the Sahara from the Amazon areas. They are expensive but do the job quite well. The strips work but yes they will eventually pick up ink and chemicals if you do not practice pristine techniques

[bimmridder]

I was lucky enough to find some aluminum doors that swing in and out. Found them at a store that was closing. Really like them. Look nice, light weight, easy to keep clean, etc (not cheap new I'm sure)

[ebscreen]

Thanks fella's. Second thought was the restaurant kitchen style doors, though I could certainly see a "busy waiter slams door into other waiter
with tray of appetizers" thing happening. Tray of appetizers being an open bucket of emulsion of course.

Uline has the vinyl strip doors for ~$150 for the size I need. Might be worth the experiment.

[bimmridder]

IN/OUT signs? And I know you can't teach it, but common sense. I like the doors because they swing out of the way, hands free, no swimming through them, Very light weight. Again, not cheap though.

[tonypep]

Thanks fella's. Second thought was the restaurant kitchen style doors, though I could certainly see a "busy waiter slams door into other waiter
with tray of appetizers" thing happening. Tray of appetizers being an open bucket of emulsion of course.

Uline has the vinyl strip doors for ~$150 for the size I need. Might be worth the experiment.

[tonypep]

Thanks fella's. Second thought was the restaurant kitchen style doors, though I could certainly see a "busy waiter slams door into other waiter
with tray of appetizers" thing happening. Tray of appetizers being an open bucket of emulsion of course.

Uline has the vinyl strip doors for ~$150 for the size I need. Might be worth the experiment.

Thats what we have. $1800 for a double door. Don't ask me how many we have you'll faint.

[ebscreen]

Jeez, for that kind of money you'd think you could get an automatic Star Wars style door.

[ABuffington]

I like clear yellow vapor barrier doors, mainly to keep humidity out.  That overspray from the sink is absorbed by already coated screens in the drying area.  This affects the quality of exposure and the durability of the stencil.  Dehumidifiers in your screen storage area/room are also helpful.  In the dry cold winter months the opposite can be true.  It is possible to have too dry a room.  The end result of too dry a room?  Cracked emulsion during printing.  A temp and humidity gauge help out a lot to keep humidity around 35% and temps around 65 day, and a minimum of 50 at night.  Too cold a room will make the emulsion very viscous and affect coating properties.  Get below 40 and you can freeze emulsion and it will never work again, or you will see cracking of the emulsion along the edges of the squeegee path.

Vapor barrier doors also provide a view of workers on the other side of the door.  Avoid going through a door like this with wet freshly coated screens, coat in the room if possible.  Nothing wrong with any door, but the main purpose is light protection and keeping the moisture out, the dry air in.

[ZooCity]

I think I'm going to try them out in the new space.  I am concerned about it annoying staff going in/out but maybe less annoying than an actual door that would just get left open and defeat the whole purpose.

Alan, what do you recommend for getting positive airflow in the screen room?  We would have two doors to ours- one to the clean washout for degreasing/developing, one for developed screens out to the floor for tape up. I'm thinking sticky mats at each portal.  Seems like having a gentle amount of air blowing out of the screen room would really help mitigate contaminants getting in.

[ebscreen]

We've got a dehumidifier and the room is on a temp controller, though I'll admit to turning it off at night, never really thought
about it, but after being heated all day I'd doubt it gets to 50 at night.

Yeah, name of the game is keeping the moist sink air out of the dry room. I've worked in places with the vinyl strip doors
and I recall wanting to rip them off the frame several times, so I'll hunt around and see what else I can find. Luckily pops is a
contractor and has several door dudes.

[jsheridan]

If your goal here is to get wet screens from washing 'out in the open' into the screen room or drying before coating, then the answer is pass-through cabinets.

I'm building the screen room at the new shop, it's all pass through with integrated screen drying designed on a looping system. Even have a pass through exposure unit built into the cabinet. It's tight.. I'll post the pictures when its painted.

[tonypep]

We had the at Fortune Fashions. Only issue was climate control. Everything travels through those 2 way restaurant doors on rolling racks here.

[ebscreen]

Goal really is more to keep the humid air from washout out of the rest of the screen rooms.
Passthrough cabinets ala Murakami's website look awesome and may end up doing that down the road.
I do hate wheeling tall racks of screens around though, feels so unsteady. I used to love the bakers racks
but the more I got to know them...

[ZooCity]

yeah, shuffling racks of screens over bumpy wood floors is tedious to say the least.

With the vapor barriers I'm really keen on not just keeping the screen room isolated from errant UV and chem laden airborne moisture but also keeping dirty booth overspray as segregated as possible from the clean booth.  Splash back, over spray and whatnot from dehazer primarily is probably the #1 contributor to coated screens that look like ass around here.  Roller frames are no help in that battle either with their crevices for chem's to hide in.

I really like pass through cabs but the racks give you so much more layout flexibility.  In a more perfect world with more square footage for screen processing I wouldn't hesitate to go straight to pass throughs. Would love to see what you come up with John, you're one of the ones who's been around and seen a lot.