MESH+HALTONE HELP

All about screen printing mesh. This is where you can discuss mesh counts, nomenclature and how to choose the correct mesh count for the print job.

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foreverx24
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MESH+HALTONE HELP

Post by foreverx24 »

I have a 155 screen and I have set my half tones to 35 lpi. EVERY TIME I print it its 90% black and I lose pretty much all my half tone detail. What is going wrong?...Any ideas?
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Catspit Productions
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Re: MESH+HALTONE HELP

Post by Catspit Productions »

Well even though you have a 35 lpi that may burn okay on a 110 it’s probably flooding out when you print. There are 2 things you can try.

First you could simply try to reduce the pressure on the print stroke and eliminate the flood stroke altogether by just pulling some of the ink with the print stroke. That will lessen the volume of ink being printed and should help keep things from flooding out but you may have to wipe the back of the screens every few prints to keep the resolution.

The other thing you can try would probably be best. Move up to a 200 or a 230 mesh count. When you do that you can even bump the lpi up to 40 or 45 which will give you a much better halftone with nicer gradients.

If you are printing with black ink which tends to be thinner with plastisol inks and water based inks it will be difficult to get a decent print using such a low mesh count with such big dot. That scenario is easily flooded when printing as stated above.

I hope that helps some, good luck and thanks for posting!
Jonathan Monaco
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ppdlao
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Re: MESH+HALTONE HELP

Post by ppdlao »

Catspit Productions wrote:try to reduce the pressure on the print stroke and eliminate the flood stroke altogether by just pulling some of the ink with the print stroke. That will lessen the volume of ink being printed and should help keep things from flooding out but you may have to wipe the back of the screens every few prints to keep the resolution.
Jon reading at this, a question poped up in mind, :?: do we have to flash each process color when printing CMYK color sep? or should we print it wet on wet? .. just curiosity.. I'm not printing any CMYK any soon... YET! :)

thanks in advance for your response buddy!
ApeShirt
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Re: MESH+HALTONE HELP

Post by ApeShirt »

ppdlao wrote:
Catspit Productions wrote:try to reduce the pressure on the print stroke and eliminate the flood stroke altogether by just pulling some of the ink with the print stroke. That will lessen the volume of ink being printed and should help keep things from flooding out but you may have to wipe the back of the screens every few prints to keep the resolution.
Jon reading at this, a question poped up in mind, :?: do we have to flash each process color when printing CMYK color sep? or should we print it wet on wet? .. just curiosity.. I'm not printing any CMYK any soon... YET! :)

thanks in advance for your response buddy!
Pepe, you need to print wet on wet when doing 4- color process (CMYK). This allows the inks to "mix" as printed in order to make different colors.
Greg
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ppdlao
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Re: MESH+HALTONE HELP

Post by ppdlao »

ApeShirt wrote:Pepe, you need to print wet on wet when doing 4- color process (CMYK). This allows the inks to "mix" as printed in order to make different colors.
Really!! .. what you're seaying makes sense! thnks buddy :)
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Catspit Productions
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Re: MESH+HALTONE HELP

Post by Catspit Productions »

Yes, I agree. Most often CMYK will be printed wet on wet for various reasons.

Other types of halftones may be flashed depending on the print result desired.
Jonathan Monaco
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http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
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WeEmptyRooms
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Re: MESH+HALTONE HELP

Post by WeEmptyRooms »

regarding printing CMYK Wet on Wet does anyone else have issues with the ink sticking to the back of the screen?
I am using water based inks and this has been an issue after doing several prints. It then pulls the shirt up off the board.
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Catspit Productions
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Re: MESH+HALTONE HELP

Post by Catspit Productions »

There will always be a certain amount of “pick up” when printing wet. Using high quality low pick up inks is a great help but ultimately you’ll need to use enough spray tack to keep the shirt put.

You should also add some retarder which will slow the drying time down for your inks.
Jonathan Monaco
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http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
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OffsetnScreen
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Re: MESH+HALTONE HELP

Post by OffsetnScreen »

I can compare it to offset printing, where each successive ink that goes down, the ink tack is less and less, whereas, your "soupiest"ink was the last one down. This thread is probably the most informative thread that I have come across so far on this subject. Thanks for the posts.
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