EOM?

[3Deep]

You would think I would this this, but I don't in a way,  coating a screen to get a nice gasket for printing halftones.  Here is what I do which I don't think works like I think it should, I coat the screen print side first twice then the squeege side once wet on wet...I know by doing this I push the emulsion back to the print side giving the back a thicker print side, or should I coat one/one then let it dry some and then coat the print side again?

Darryl

[Prosperi-Tees]

I have never had luck coating after the first coat is dry. Wet on wet seems to build thickness much easier using the glisten method.

[blue moon]

 we do the same as you and have super thick stencils (20% on 300's and 50% on 110's) that produce pretty good prints.

the dry coating is to reduce the roughness of the stencil as it is pretty hard to build anything up that way.

pierre

[JBLUE]

Here is some good info for you Darryl.

http://www.kiwo.com/Articles/Screen%20Coating%20Techniques.pdf

And this

http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php?topic=2621.0

and one more

http://www.contractdesign.com/impressions/images/TechTipsNL_Apr2012JERZEES_v3_Inter.pdf

[alan802]

Darryl, don't focus on doing a certain number of coats on one side and the other.  Use the glisten method, always coat the squeegee side last like you are doing, and I wouldn't worry about doing "face coats" or coating after the screen is dried.  Each mesh count is different and may require more or less coats on the shirt side of the screen to get the squeegee side to "glisten" or be encapsulated by the emulsion.  Then based on how thick you want your stencil to be, coat the squeegee side one time for a 15-20% EOMR and each additional coat on the squeegee side will give you 10-30 microns additional stencil thickness (typically, but everyone is different), depending on your personal coating technique.  Emulsions are all different and will require different numbers of coats to glisten so just make sure you pay attention to the method and not so much coating a certain number of times.

[RICK STEFANICK]

I think drying the screen with the print side down is very important .

[3Deep]

Theys Jblue I knew it was talked about on here at one time, you can read an article all you want but real world comes from people that do it everyday, I 'll check Doug out though.

Thanks for the links
Darryl

[3Deep]

I know one of the biggest problems I have is being consistent on my coating, and I can really tell once I set up to print, some screens are dead on and print like a dream other times I could just beat my head aganist a wall.  This brings me to this question would a auto coater be idea? maybe Action needs to work on a manual coater that would give us more consistency from screen to screen with EOM.

DArryl

[JBLUE]

There is a reason you can find used auto coaters for pretty cheap. You just need to figure out your style and stick with it. Not everyone is a good screen coater. Do like Alan suggested it will get you in the ball park. Although for halftone hi detail printing I would try a face coat to fill in the highs and lows. You will have to test and see how many you have to do for a face coat but it does make a difference in dot quality.

[tonypep]

Like this? This unit is 12 ys old and uses a hydraulic shock available at any auto parts store. It is designed for two handed coating. (I really frown on the one hand though some have mastered it). Drawing up plans to swivel it with an air operated foot pedal.

[tonypep]

Man I gotta slow down when posting

[JBLUE]

Cool little setup!

[BorisB]

I think drying the screen with the print side down is very important .

That's what I beleived for years. For my shop it turned out to be wrong. We have two drying cabinets. One horizontal, one vertical- originally planned for reclaimed screens. When you compare EOM and printed ink thickness you cannot tell the difference. I have to add that vertical cabinet is extremly efficient in drying emulsion.


Boris

[mk162]

we used to dry all of ours vertical and I really didn't notice an improvement.  I find the horizontal cabinets to be more efficient though

[Gilligan]

I guess it depends on the topic at hand... EOM.