All the printers prefer to print high-quality images with their screen printing machines. For high-quality photos printed, you should be careful with your screen tension. It is one of the most crucial pieces of equipment to offer high-quality print.
If the tension of the screen is inappropriate, it will produce lower-quality prints. As a result, you are to decrease your marketing capability. Luckily, by taking some steps, you could set your screens up for the most favorable presentation.
Imagine you start printing with your screen printing machine, but you find the prints are blurred, messy, or defective. Immediately, you become suspicious about your artwork, as well as the screen printing machine. Through a vivid investigation, you find the setup of your artwork. This setup is acceptable in terms of quality, and at the same time, your printing machine continues to function as usual. But you care little about your screen tension, which could cause immense trouble.
The Effect of Improper Tension of Your Screen Printing Machine
Screen tension refers to the tight state of the mesh within the frame. Newton per square centimeter (N/cm²) is the standard unit of measurement. Suppose the screens lose their tension repeatedly, which hampers them. It would help if you blew the squeegee straight and pressed the mesh. Total printing jobs could suffer from this sort of unacceptable tension.
Unacceptable tension can affect your screen printing machine, causing defective prints. You have set flawless artwork, and your film has a proper alignment and better print. You get archives of solid rock from your machine, but you are producing crooked prints. It appears to be due to the defective tensioned screen.
The poor screen tension exaggerates the integrity of your stencils. These inappropriate screen tensions would result in quicker fracturing of stencils. It occurs due to the mesh being placed under unnecessary strain. Feedback of a decadent stencil is pinholes, fuzzy edges, and loss of detail in your prints.
If your screens fail to maintain the appropriate tension, your prints can spread as the ink may gather in mesh folds and not extend evenly.
Screens with short tension are prone to pick up ink from preceding layers of a multicolor printing job. They do not return to the spot as they should when the squeegee passes over. The preceding ink can construct and chunk openings of the mesh. It holds succeeding layers of ink from flowing through the screen, resulting in blurred prints and loss of detail.
The manual screen printing machine becomes an additional complication due to the use of extra squeegee weight to transfer the ink from the beginning to the end of the screen.
For Proper Screen Tension, You Need to Know the Following Measures:
What is the exact number?
The tension between 25 and 35 N/cm2 is appropriate. However, it would help if it were kept away at a minimum of 15 N/cm².
The process of finding screen tension:
To measure your screen tension, you can use a tension meter tool. It stays on the print side of the screen and tracks the quantity of mesh offered under its load. When measuring, place the net on a flat, level surface.
One-point measurement is not sufficient for obtaining reliable results to verify that the tension is uniform across the entire screen, ensuring certainty that the tension is identical. Conform measuring the tension in two directions, from the top to the bottom of your screens and from one side of the screen to the other.
Measures to preserve appropriate tension:
If the screen tension drops below 15 N/cm², adjust the tension of your screens using the proper tools. A screen stretcher is a device that can be used either manually or with pneumatic clamps, allowing your mesh to return to the appropriate tension.
If you are unwilling to add extra tools, applying roller frames can make the work even smoother. Again, if you don’t like to do it yourself, there are professionals you can send your screens to.
Type of Frame and Mesh Height:
Remember, the type of frames you use determines your screen tension. Moisture or temperature changes will cause the wooden frame to lose tension.
The adhesive you usually use to keep the mesh attached to the metal frame may become ineffective after the required time has passed. As a result, you would get unacceptable tension.
The Roller frame also loses its grip on the mesh after the standard time has passed. It is wise to check regularly to ensure that the exact tension has been achieved. And regulate as needed.
For your printing press, some supplementary measures are necessary to achieve the required tension. It’s better to use the least quantity of off-contact possible and ensure that your screens and pallets are level and parallel. As a result, less squeegee pressure is needed.
This reduced pressure will reduce the stress on the screens and allow your squeegee to move more quickly. For this, you will receive prints with the required speed, quality products, and efficiency.
On the contrary, very high screen tension will also cause trouble.
Expanding the mesh too strongly will make your screens more vulnerable to spoiling during printing and possibly more challenging to print all the way through, especially when using a manual press.
Learn more:
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.