What causes poor screen tension and why you need to avoid it

Every time the Flock printing Machine squeegee passes through the mesh, you need to cleanly tear the screen from the substrate to leave a crisp, crisp print. When your screen tension is not where it should be, the screen can ripple on the substrate, smudge ink, blur the edges of the print and cause the substrate surface to move. Ideally, the screen tension should be between 20 and 25 Newtons per square inch. Every time you swipe the scraper across the screen, you relax your tension. When printing, you have to apply a certain amount of pressure on the screen to get the ink through the stencil. Over time, this pressure, along with the moisture in the ink, can loosen and break the screen. Wooden screen frames are the most popular because they are very economical, but they tend to break down faster and damage screen tension faster. This is because, in screen printing, the screen is often exposed to moisture.

During rinsing or recycling, your frames will inevitably get wet; you can even let them soak to loosen your lotion before recycling. All that moisture can cause the wood to warp and weaken, which means the frame won't hold the screen as tightly as it once did. No matter what type of material your screen frame is made of, heat will have an effect. Screens handle heat during exposure, and during drying, they are usually stored in a room with a dehumidifier at a higher temperature. Like moisture, heat can cause the frame to warp, which in turn affects screen tension. The construction of the screen frame will also determine how well the mesh maintains tension over time.

As we mentioned, wooden frames tend to break down faster, but screen durability is more complicated than building materials. If it doesn't fit your press, your screen frame will bend and affect the screen faster. How often you use the screen is also a factor. For example, on a fast-paced automatic press that prints hundreds of prints a day, the screen will not hold up as well as on a manual press with an order quantity of 50 or less. You want to get the most out of the screen as possible, which makes it a sensible option to re-tighten the screen when tension wears off. Whether you buy a tensionable screen, re-mesh a traditional screen, or send your frame to re-tighten or re-tighten, the simple act of re-tightening the screen will cause wear and tear on your frame, which will cause affect the tension of the picture.

This is because to re-tension the screen, pull the mesh to the desired tension and then attach it to the frame. The newly tightened screen pulls on the frame, which can cause it to bend slightly or significantly, depending on how strong the frame is. At the end of the day, it is critical to pay attention to screen tension as it will ultimately have an impact on your print. How closely you monitor screen tension may depend on the type of printing you do. If your bread and butter is a spot color, tension won't be a major factor, you just need to watch for signs of wear and sagging on the screen. However, if you deal with print jobs, multi-color jobs, or detailed designs, you need to monitor screen tension closely, and you might consider purchasing a tensiometer so you can spot a screen that's under tension before it affects your print job.