This will help you line up the art later so the images match up perfectly. When it comes out the other side, it is cured. The lower the mesh count, the less detail you can print and the thicker the ink lays down. Wherever the light shine through the emulsion, it hardened and will not wash away. To be honest, you may want to stay away from all-in-one units and similar machines. They were right. Photoshop can be used as well, but this is more for full color printing, etc. If you have a one color design, placing the screen on your press is quite simple. There are different types of paper for inkjet and laserjet printers, so be sure you select the right type. After placing your first screen on the press, you would do a test print. The inside will naturally be softer because the light had to shine through the emulsion to get to that side. One thing I did not mention was off-contact. If you look between the shirt and the platen, you should have a gap.
This gives you a good vibrant white. There are many art services on the internet that will supply you will screen printing artwork. You will be working upside down when you print t-shirts. After waiting for a couple of minutes, you can go back and begin spraying your screen with water. If it's 10 seconds, it's cured. Simply tape the inside and outside of the screens wherever the emulsion did not cover. So it wasn? critical for me to spend more money on a 6 color machine. Emulsion can be used under a yellow light so that you still can see what you are doing, but the UV light is filtered out so as not to effect the emulsion. You need a good light source for this process. If you can reach 320 degrees in 1 second, it's cured. The artwork you start art with is VERY important. Your first print. They are a waste of money. A flash unit is a unit that you place over your platen (arm that you place the shirt on). Make sure that whatever you do that works, keep it consistent. Even though you can print just as good of a print with these machines, they are costly and they slow your process down. When you finish printing a shirt, you pull it off of your platen and place it on the conveyer dryer. Lightly spray both sides of the screen with water. A 70 - 80 degree angle is good. What you are looking for in a press is a solid frame, micro registration and rotating platens. As with anything, practice is what is needed. Very rarely did I ever need to print anything more than a 4 color design.
As you spray down the screen, you will see the image on your screen. Since this is no longer the case (now they are made from polyester), the name changed. When you have artwork that is ready to print, you can print your artwork out on a clear film instead of paper. The light source would be contained in this box. You can also create (or recreate) artwork yourself. 7. Basically, it's an overlapping of the artwork by a small margin. 4. This is simply known as art separations, or "seps". 5. This is something you can talk to your emulsion supplier about. This mesh has different counts. If you go too much of an angle, you will get a heavy print and it won? look very good. As long as it reaches 320 degrees, you are good. Remember, 320 is the magic number! 6. So it is an artform to say the least in dealing with correct mesh. There are so many miscellaneous items that it would be good to talk to a supplier about what you need to get started. Spray on the outside of the frame, or the side that was touching the film. The good thing is, if the first print does not work out for you, you can print it again, right over top of it. Capillary film is stilled used but the most common technique is using a light sensitive liquid emulsion. This flash unit is meant to flash the ink just long enough where it is not cured and it is not wet.
This is called your off-contact. If you fax them a logo, they can redraw it for you and send you a file in which you can use for the making of screens. Raytek also makes a heat gun that when the shirt comes out, you point the laser beam at the ink and it will give you a temperature reading. There are so many manufacturers and types of inks, it? good to find one and stick with them. If you have jagged or grainy artwork, you will reproduce this. This is essential for a crisp image to be burned into the screen mesh. Using these programs will ensure that you will have high quality artwork in the end. It's a bit of a long read, but it's informative enough to give you a good idea of exactly what takes place. Later, as I grew, I purchased more machines that allowed for more colors. This vacuum frame will pull the matte close to the screen frame. This will allow you to print colors on top of colors if needed, and you will need it! Many people use these units to cure their shirts. A screen is simply a wooden or metal frame that has a fine mesh stretched over and attached to it. A scoop coater is needed. You want to have the sqeegee at an angle, but not too much. Personally, I've always pulled my squeegee. Once the image is exposed into your emulsion, you can take the screen to a washout booth. It is imperative to use a vector art program like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw or Macromedia FreeHand. It's very time consuming, but it works! To expose a screen, taking the film positive you created and place it on the glass top with the right reading being up. Film Positives. 1. It's really a matter of testing.