Screen Printing With Thin Mesh: Higher Mesh Counts & Lower Thread Diameters

An older approach of fascinated about screen printing tee shirts or different garments is to use decrease mesh counts to attain higher protection and coloration. While it is true that leaving more ink on a fabric will are likely to make it extra opaque, there are better, extra efficient methods of getting the same or higher outcomes. You’ll have to abandon your need to do easy spot colour jobs on mesh counts like 110 or decrease and adopt the usage of newer mesh counts.

So as to make use of the newest monofilament polyester screen fabrics to your advantage, you’ll need to know a easy characteristic of screen printing mesh. We can be specializing in how a fabric’s thread diameter affects the mesh geometry. That’s to say, we will look at how the thread diameter of the mesh will affect the general ink circulation or improve the mesh opening for any given industrial filter mesh count. If you need a refresher on mesh dialogue and nomenclature, please read this article: Screen Printing Mesh: Count Conversions, Nomenclatures & More. We will try to not get over technical here however there’s a certain amount of tech discuss wanted with a view to continue.

Keeping that in mind, let’s check out two mesh counts for the purposes of illustrating the idea. If we now have a mesh count of one hundred ten which is made with a standard eighty micrometer thread, we all know the mesh opening is about 43% with a mesh tension of forty four N/cm, (Newtons per centimeter). 43% is the quantity to deal with right here because this represents the percentage of open space of the mesh at a particular tension. The higher this number is, the higher the ink stream will be through the mesh. Now we additionally know that printing with 110 mesh has its personal inherent qualities like lack of element or “saw tooth-ing”. And screen printing mesh it additionally offers for a rougher ink floor when printing an beneath base. Now what if we might use a higher mesh count that had an analogous or higher mesh opening ratio?

Let’s now consider a mesh depend of 150, made with a forty eight micron diameter thread and stretched at 28 N/cm. If you loved this information and you would such as to obtain additional info regarding Screen printing mesh Cost kindly check out the web-page. This display will have a mesh opening ratio of around 51%. If we have a look at the two percentages, screen printing mesh cost you will note the one hundred ten has a 43% mesh opening and the 150 has a 51% mesh opening. So, despite the fact that the one hundred fifty mesh is a higher thread depend compared to the 110, it still has extra open space. This enables for better ink saturation in the print space, enhancing the opacity and the color intensity of the print. Although this mesh could have somewhat bit lower theoretical ink quantity, it can have better ink movement characteristics and permit a reduction in squeegee stress too. It will produce a thinner, extra even and easy ink deposit which creates a softer hand or really feel to the print. Mesh like this is typically referred to as “thin mesh”.

This sort of mesh can have nice advantages for many causes. Reducing squeegee strain can enhance image detail. It can also reduce stencil drag which in flip improves registration. Also, it is important to notice that ink opacity or coverage is affected by factors other than ink quantity such as the substrate and even the ink quality itself. In standard conditions, a clean, even deposit of a lesser quantity of ink will produce a extra colorful and opaque print than making use of thicker layers of ink.

Using a mesh just like the aforementioned 150/forty eight or possibly a 135/forty for a white under base is a superb usage of any such mesh. The under base will be capable of render details wanted for the design. It’s going to produce a greater surface than could be produced by the 110/eighty mesh. As you could already know, a smoother, thinner, extra consistent underneath base is good for halftones. A thin industrial filter mesh might also assist cut back clogging with water based mostly inks and back flooding.

Some benefits of “thin mesh”:

– Better ink move with much less effort

– Great protection with minimal ink quantity

– Creates a smoother, extra constant floor

– Requires much less squeegee stress – Improves print quality or detail

– Easier to realize stencil detail

– Elimination of fabric interference in halftones

– Creates a softer hand print

You should be capable of be taught extra about the advantages of skinny mesh out of your fabric vendor if they’re a reputable, “state of the art” display screen printing source. With somewhat research and a few testing, you could possibly be taking advantage mesh expertise and improve print high quality whereas making production simpler.

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