Film issues/ Epson T3270

[acescreen]

We recently took advantage of the $500 instant savings on the new Epson T3270. Got it in hooked it up and it has been printing great for us. The only thing that I have noticed since switching is that we have more issues with the film sticking to screens. I got on here to get some info and noticed that this is a common problem although I don't remember that being much of an issue when we were using the 1430 over the last few months since last November. We switched when our Xante 5 laser printer died on us. Not sure if the humidity increasing played a role in this? I took some tips off some of the threads the main one being using baby powder on the screen. This has helped although I have noticed even though the ink does not stick to the screen sometimes the ink on the film after being exposed is no longer 100% solid almost like the solid areas turned into a very fine halftone dots. Even still sometimes with baby powder ink will still stick to emulsion mainly on the lower mesh screens 110-125??? It has been really frustrating making alot of our films a 1 time use film. We are using the Ulano pigment waterproof 24" roll  film and we are using Chroma Blue for our plastisol prints and Kiwo Multi Tex for our waterbase.

Please let me know if anyone has any insight on this, maybe the film we are using or the emulsion......Thanks guys!

[Admiral]

Is it sticking to both emulsions?

Humidity increasing will definitely play a role - what is the humidity where the dried screens are stored? This screens will work best as dry as possible.

Does the ink seem to stick or is it the plastic film itself? no difference?

Get the emulsions drier would be my first step for improvement.  Park a couple screens right by a dehumidifier for awhile and test those,  see how different they work.

[kedens]

I fought this same issue for a long long time with the chromablue emulsion after changing to a waterproof type film. Loved the chromablue hated to have to find a new emulsion. EVERYONE said you have a humidity problem, your screens are not dry, your film is not dry, it can't be the emulsion! Try powder, let your film set overnight, try a different film...
I changed emulsion and never had another problem.  The blue is sticky.
I have been considering upgrading from the 1430 to one of the new Epson sure color printers. I would like to hear more about how that is working for you.

[KevWilso]

All the above help: powder, let films sit longer, adjust ink droplet size in your rip....

Diazo emulsions typically do not stick as much as PPP, but if you are dead set on a PPP emulsion chromaline came out with a non stick version of chromablue that addresses this issue; it was called our prototype emulsion, but we finally got it named Chromatech TD.

[blue moon]

I am going to guess here . . .
the Waterproof film has a coating that absorbs liquids. It is very fine and very effective, it's how your ink gets sucked into the film and is dry to the touch very quickly (compared to the regular film that had ink sitting on the top and was wet out of the printer).
The screens (emulsion) has water in it and the film is trying to suck it out via the capillary action. That is a very strong force especially when distributed across such a large area. Result is films sticking.

So, here are my guesses. If your films are dry, they will suck moisture out of the emulsion. Try letting them sit and see if the humidity in the air fills the WP coating. Also, try getting your screens to be dryer so there is less moisture that can be pulled out.

In other words, do what the other members said before me!

pierre

[acescreen]

I fought this same issue for a long long time with the chromablue emulsion after changing to a waterproof type film. Loved the chromablue hated to have to find a new emulsion. EVERYONE said you have a humidity problem, your screens are not dry, your film is not dry, it can't be the emulsion! Try powder, let your film set overnight, try a different film...
I changed emulsion and never had another problem.  The blue is sticky.
I have been considering upgrading from the 1430 to one of the new Epson sure color printers. I would like to hear more about how that is working for you.

I am going to try a few different emulsions and see what that does for us.

So far we are really liking the new Epson T3270. I will do a review on here once we've had it for 6 months or so good, bad, and ugly.