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W

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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
Ok so I tried for the first time to screen print the oter day and im having a few problems.

Firstly, the ink seemed to be smudging on some text at the edge of the print, it looks like when back filling the screen some ink was protruding through these areas of the print causing a build up of ink on the shirt side of the screen.

I tried back filling very gently but this kept happening.

Secondly, not much ink seems to be depositing on the shirt, mainly in the middle of the image (apart from where the ink was protruding through the screen) even with a well flooded screen. Could this be due to the screen emulsion thickness?

Thirdly, when i tried to do a second pass on the print to thicken it up, the two images were slightly out of line.

The screen im using i think was a 33t, (i have some 55t and this looks much finer.

The ink is while plastisol and is of out of the tub consistency.

the squegee seems EVER so slightly rounded in the middle, but not so much as i would suspect it to cause issues?

The off contact distance was set to a bout 4 - 5 millimetres, and the screen is snapping off the image well.

Any help appreciated

Dave
 
alvin6661

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#2 ·
Re: screen printing problems

WayOut said:
Ok so I tried for the first time to screen print the oter day and im having a few problems.

Firstly, the ink seemed to be smudging on some text at the edge of the print, it looks like when back filling the screen some ink was protruding through these areas of the print causing a build up of ink on the shirt side of the screen.

I tried back filling very gently but this kept happening.

Secondly, not much ink seems to be depositing on the shirt, mainly in the middle of the image (apart from where the ink was protruding through the screen) even with a well flooded screen. Could this be due to the screen emulsion thickness?

Thirdly, when i tried to do a second pass on the print to thicken it up, the two images were slightly out of line.

The screen im using i think was a 33t, (i have some 55t and this looks much finer.

The ink is while plastisol and is of out of the tub consistency.

the squegee seems EVER so slightly rounded in the middle, but not so much as i would suspect it to cause issues?

The off contact distance was set to a bout 4 - 5 millimetres, and the screen is snapping off the image well.

Any help appreciated

Dave
Click to expand...
what kind of press, are you flash curing in between colors, and it should not be "snapping" if your hearing a snap noise then your screen is to loose.
 
W

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Discussion Starter · #3 ·
Re: screen printing problems

Its just a standard clamp type press in which the screen is secured in the clamp and lowered over the platen.

I am not using colors, just white. havent had a decent enough print to try and bother curing yet.

There is no snapping noise, I was just using that analogy to the screen pulling away from the garment when printing.

Cheers

Dave
 
B

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#4 ·
WayOut said:
Ok so I tried for the first time to screen print the oter day and im having a few problems.

Firstly, the ink seemed to be smudging on some text at the edge of the print, it looks like when back filling the screen some ink was protruding through these areas of the print causing a build up of ink on the shirt side of the screen.

I tried back filling very gently but this kept happening.

Secondly, not much ink seems to be depositing on the shirt, mainly in the middle of the image (apart from where the ink was protruding through the screen) even with a well flooded screen. Could this be due to the screen emulsion thickness?

Thirdly, when i tried to do a second pass on the print to thicken it up, the two images were slightly out of line.

The screen im using i think was a 33t, (i have some 55t and this looks much finer.

The ink is while plastisol and is of out of the tub consistency.

the squegee seems EVER so slightly rounded in the middle, but not so much as i would suspect it to cause issues?

The off contact distance was set to a bout 4 - 5 millimetres, and the screen is snapping off the image well.

Any help appreciated

Dave
Click to expand...
Hello Dave, I think most of us have the same problems when we start doing this, so I'll try to be very specific with my answers :)

1.- Check for the off contact of your screen, it should be the same from the top to bottom of the pallet.
Try to keep your squeegee pressure steady while you travel trhu the screen.

2.- If there's not enough ink on the shirt when you printing it could be water in the middle of your image make sure that when you are preparing your screen is completely dry and water free.

3.- If your image looks like is not line up with the first pass, the press that your using is not tight enough and when you lift the screen from the first pass it doesn't hold your registration right.

4.- make sure your squeegee have a nice fine cut on the edges, and remember when you are printing you have to print with the edges of your squeegee not with the middle. If you just start in this I will recommend a 70(durometer) squeegee :)

5.-The off contact should be fine at that distance but make sure is evenly 4mm from the pallet.
 
M

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#5 ·
Re: screen printing problems

How wide is the image and how wide is your squeegee? Also, how close to the edge of the screen does your image get?

I've found that if I use a squeegee that's only slightly wider than the image, or if my image is too close to the edge of the screen, details in the image along the sides end up a little smudged or not as solid an imprint. If the squeegee is too short, you don't get the pressure on the edges that you do in the center, and if your image is too close to the edge of the screen, then a similar thing happens where those sides do not get pressed down close enough to the shirt and ink gets pulled beneath the screen, causing smudging or blurring.

I recommend either increasing the distance between the screen edge and the image, using a wider squeegee, or, if those options cannot be done for some reason, you might try decreasing the off-contact as a last resort.
 
Markolis

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#8 ·
wow, seems we newbs all get similar problems. I'm getting a clogged screen on the ends (like the squeegee is not pushing through there) with that same build up Dave is talking about on the print side of the screen. Doesn't seem to make a difference what off-contact I use and I just could not figure out the problem. I burned a new screen and still same issue - I realized that the common denominator is then the image itself - but I couldn't figure out why. But now, after reading this thread, It occurs to me this image is wider than others I've done....thanks!!!
 
W

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Discussion Starter · #9 ·
Thanks for this info guys, it has helped a lot. Getting satisfactory print results now.

One thing i noticed the other day tho was i burnt a new stencil onto a screen, and when printing, some areas of the image were not laying ink down properly.

Upon inspection of areas of the screen concerned, i noticed the screen has a certain reflective shine or shimmer to it different to the other areas.

I tried cleaning these areas with screen cleaner and even delicately cleaning with stencil remover but to no avail. There didnt seem to be any physical blockage in the screen, it just seemed to be retaining ink when printing.

Screen was new and was always cleared of any residual ink before printing.

Any ideas?

Cheers agen

Dave
 
Markolis

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#13 ·
btw, I just had this problem like I said before and I finally figured out my issue. What was happening was the screen was getting clogged in a few places every print. Instead of the ink going through on those places it would stay in the image. Then when I tried more passes, it would just build up in those places and make a mess. Here's what I did after doing some research on this forum and it worked great.

First thing was my off contact was not exactly even (ie the screen was slanted). By using a piece of cardboard I was able to get the top end of the screen (the end closest to me when printing) to be the same exact height as the bottom end. This helps to not get ink trapped under the screen and also helps to not get shadowing.

Also I realized when I was doing squeegee passes, I was not clearing the screen completely. In other words after my pass there was still some ink left on the screen behind it. This could also happen if your squeegee is old and doesn't have sharp edges, but mine are new so it was my pressure and angle I had to work on. I concentrated on making sure that there is NO ink left behind the squeegee the whole width of the print and I stopped having that problem.

Hope this helps others having the same issue.
 
Markolis

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#16 ·
Just a follow up on what I said before - try a push stroke instead of a pull stroke. After everything I did above I was still having trouble with the white ink which is very thick. More often than not I was not clearing the screen so I tried a push stroke and it does way better at getting completely clear. Also here's a vid I watched that helped know what to do if ink is left in the screen - the presentation is nothing to write home about but the info helped me tremendously [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXUXyAascE[/media]
 
I

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#17 ·
Hello everybody,

We use waterbased ink with a mesh 46. The problem is that the ink sometimes goes through and sometimes no on the same mesh. If we use diluent then too much ink goes through. Someone any idea about the solution?
 
InkedApparel

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#18 ·
Intrudair said:
Hello everybody,

We use waterbased ink with a mesh 46. The problem is that the ink sometimes goes through and sometimes no on the same mesh. If we use diluent then too much ink goes through. Someone any idea about the solution?
Click to expand...

sounds like the waterbased ink is drying in the screen....try to keep the image area covered with ink when not printing......and spray the image area with water before you flood it.

Inked
 
I

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#19 ·
We have some other problem too. The first one is, we cannot wash out the dry ink from the mesh. Do anyone has some idea what could we do?
The second thing is, after the exposure we washed out the emulsion from the mesh, and the water got it out not only from the image, around it too.

We thought maybe the pressure of the water was too strong, or the exposure time was too long...what do you think about it?
 
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