"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
First off, figure cost all you want, but be assured that micron for micron, cap film is more expensive. It is, after all, essentially emulsion made in a convenient shape, and you are paying for that convenience and eom consistency. As for your dual cure, yes, it's a photopolymer with diazo as well.
Unfortunately, the most detailed explanation that I have found is that cap film is better for detail than direct emulsion.
Does the cap film come through to the squeegee side? Does this effect the Rz value? For that matter, does Rz matter on the squeegee side?
why not put some unprinted sticker material on each container to add up the screens per coating session!
A related issue is the comparison of methods of sensitizing in direct emulsion. I have some qx-1 that claims to be dual cure, yet it lasts a year and exposes in about 10% of the time that my Kiwo poly plus dual cure emulsions do. Which leads me to believe that it is actually photopolymer. Am I wrong or is ulano trying to pull a fast one?
QuoteA related issue is the comparison of methods of sensitizing in direct emulsion. I have some qx-1 that claims to be dual cure, yet it lasts a year and exposes in about 10% of the time that my Kiwo poly plus dual cure emulsions do. Which leads me to believe that it is actually photopolymer. Am I wrong or is ulano trying to pull a fast one?I surely need someone to qualify this statement but I believe they are all technically "dual cures" with some containing diazo and some omitting it. If you threw diazo into your QX-1 it would have a shelf life and expose slower.
My favorite stencils are ones consistently coated with direct emulsion and then face coated on both sides. While a cap film stencil may be technically capable of holding more detail at exposure, this direct emulsion screen is going to excel on-press. RZ on the squeegee side does make a difference. If you want to feel/see how much, try the face coating method above using an emulsion formulated for low-RZ like Kiwo Poly Plus Z.
I love information overload, it's one of the main reasons I read these forums, too much for the novice I'm sure but I do enjoy reading your posts and Zoo's.
Quote from: ZooCity on September 12, 2011, 07:41:52 PMMy favorite stencils are ones consistently coated with direct emulsion and then face coated on both sides. While a cap film stencil may be technically capable of holding more detail at exposure, this direct emulsion screen is going to excel on-press. RZ on the squeegee side does make a difference. If you want to feel/see how much, try the face coating method above using an emulsion formulated for low-RZ like Kiwo Poly Plus Z. I like your line of introduction here, but don’t you think that face coating is a fairly advanced technique? And FCing the front and back for both gasket smoothness and squeegee travel surface is a bit much all in one serving - from a newbie standpoint?I am looking at this more from information overload than any real disagreement.
Let me know how you like Phantasm CS, I'm very interested in that program but have not had time to give it a good whirl. Those phantasm software folks appear to be actually considering us printers and, *gasp*, even accommodating us as a trade. Just a tiny little snowflake in hell they seem.
Anyone got a link to the "glisten method" handy. I know I've read about it many times and I'm sure I've read an article but going a year without actually doing it doesn't really help much.