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Can screens get too cold or emulsion too old?

655 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by  NoXid, 
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I have been screen printing for about a year, but have ony done a few jobs so far. I had a devil of a time getting my first screens burned. I thought I had worked out all my problems by reading all of the posts in these forums, but I am now having a new problem. I have tried to expose a screen twice and can not get the image to come out. The only thing different with these screens is that they were coated in October of 2017 and stored in a cabinet in a dark Ohio fruit cellar over a long, cold winter. Having said all that, could my emulsion have gone old or gotten too cold?
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NoXid
If it did not freeze, it did not get too cold.

But, yes, emulsion contains photosensitive chemistry, and all such chemistry degrades over time. If your emulsion is the type where you mix in Diazo powder, it died a long time ago. Photo polymer type emulsion lasts longer, a year or more after it was manufactured, but it still eventually expires.

NOTE Expired emulsion will fail to expose--meaning it will all wash out of the screen.

If you need help getting your exposure time right, see the link in my sig.
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