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screen printing => Screen Making => Topic started by: 3Deep on May 28, 2014, 03:31:50 PM

Title: Halftones
Post by: 3Deep on May 28, 2014, 03:31:50 PM
What color screen mesh would you say burns the best halftones?  for years I only used white mesh, due to I printed tons of spot color and every now and then a few halftone jobs in the range of 35 to 37 Lpi which are not hard to burn on any mesh.  Now that I do a lot of sim and process etc, I really like using yellow mesh, I think I cheaped my self into a bunch of 230 white mesh screens that I don't use much anymore.

Darryl
Title: Re: Halftones
Post by: Homer on May 28, 2014, 03:33:18 PM
red or orange.....
Title: Re: Halftones
Post by: Sbrem on May 28, 2014, 03:58:55 PM
Hey Darryl, white works, but it's a lot harder to control as it tends to overexpose more easily. The colored meshes filter that problem out, the darker the mesh, the more so. We use yellow and orange here...

Steve
Title: Re: Halftones
Post by: mk162 on May 28, 2014, 04:01:34 PM
we use white for 110's and I am trying to buy only yellow for 155's.  230 and up have always been yellow.
Title: Re: Halftones
Post by: tonypep on May 28, 2014, 04:02:49 PM
The colored mesh minimizes light refraction which is often confused with overexposure
Title: Re: Halftones
Post by: 3Deep on May 28, 2014, 04:15:09 PM
red or orange.....
Used orange before for low mesh cts 86 but have never used red, don't even think I've seen any red mesh..... I'm trying to get away from white mesh on my high mesh cts it's a monster to hold fine lines and halftones unless your very dialed in which I'm not.

D
Title: Re: Halftones
Post by: jsheridan on May 28, 2014, 05:06:16 PM
The colored mesh minimizes light refraction which is often confused with overexposure

Tony nailed it.

White mesh acts like fiber-optics. It lets the light travel along, under the image edge causing poor edge definition.
Title: Re: Halftones
Post by: Sbrem on May 28, 2014, 05:40:30 PM
The colored mesh minimizes light refraction which is often confused with overexposure

Tony nailed it.

White mesh acts like fiber-optics. It lets the light travel along, under the image edge causing poor edge definition.

Agreed, but I still call it over-exposure if it's hardening emulsion where it shouldn't; semantics I guess. That's pretty much the same way I've always explained to new guys too.

Steve
Title: Re: Halftones
Post by: ScreenFoo on May 28, 2014, 06:21:21 PM
Isn't there some fancy term for light running along the threads?  Halation?

IIRC it's from Saati's old manual on pimping screens.  ;)
Title: Re: Halftones
Post by: alan802 on May 28, 2014, 06:50:09 PM
I buy yellow at all mesh counts if possible.  We have a few white mesh screens like our 120/54's and a few 110's but about 95% of our screen inventory is yellow mesh.  No orange or red but I do know it works better than yellow for details.