Tonypep

[jvanick]

congrats.. that's awesome and you're not kidding about pretty much the entire M&R catalog.

those sprint 3000's are in the configuration that I want when we upgrade

question for you on the Tri-Light CTS... is that just for post-expose?  or are you also of the opinion that the MH units make stronger DC/WB screens?

[Shirt Lord]

question for you on the Tri-Light CTS... is that just for post-expose?  or are you also of the opinion that the MH units make stronger DC/WB screens?

Both.

It's primarily for stronger screens for discharge and waterbase jobs. I just don't trust UV LED yet for long runs. That comes from personal experience and some tales from other printers.

[tonypep]

Wrapping things up here and headed to Tuscaloosa shortly. Moving by yourself sucks but looking forward to new horizons

[Colin]

What do you define as long runs?

About what point do you see wear and tear/breakdown?

We are going to get M&R cts and led exposure by end of the year and that has always been my main question.

[ericheartsu]

we just did a 5K run with CCI white DC, on a 150s, coated 1/1, with PHU2.

We exposed it for 24 seconds on our back bay of our trilock (essentially a starlight), and let it post expose in the sun for about 25 mins.

after a couple of wipe downs (for breaks and end of day), screen is ready for round 2 later this week, with ZERO issues.

Now 5k isn't that BIG of a run compared to what you all do, but it was great knowing we weren't going to have any issues.

[ZooCity]

Our Starlight LED exposed screens are plenty strong but they take far longer to expose than MH for most mesh counts.  It's the bottleneck typically in our imaging line, the CTS even at uni directional is way faster.  It also builds up excessive heat.  Last off, that 3 head CTS is going to out boogie most exposure methods and you'll be waiting on the expo where you could have moved the screen to the next station.  Smart move including the halide unit for high output I'd say.   

Nice setup!

[Shirt Lord]

What do you define as long runs?

About what point do you see wear and tear/breakdown?

5,000+ is a solid run. I've had great luck with CCI's WB-14 not breaking down except on the most humid of days. Even then, the breakdown is only on the squeegee side of the screen, if you look at the substrate side, all the details are there. For longer runs that take all day I just burn a second set so we can do a fresh setup in the morning.

I've seen breakdowns at 100-250 with LED exposure, but then it was in one of the worst setup shops I've ever had the displeasure of working in. Humidity control and proper coating are super important. I also found that the film area has accelerated breakdown on LED vs MH. Like the rectangle of the film will start showing up almost instantly when using LED and after around 500+ prints with Metal Halide.

[RICK STEFANICK]

That's so true.We found the same to be true using the WR-14 and exposing with the metal halide. We have just recently switched to the PLUS TX from autotype. Without hardening we have had zero breakdown, softening or the film square you spoke of..seems to be working without hardening shooting with 10k Richmond. LONGER EXPOSURE TIMES THOUGH