Images Magazine December 2016

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IMAGES DECEMBER 2016 59
COMPUTER-TO-SCREEN & PRE-PRESS KB
Marshall Atkinson is the owner of Atkinson
Consulting, LLC, a service firm focused on the
decorated apparel industry delivering process
improvement and efficiency, sustainability,
employee training, social media marketing,
and long term strategic planning. He has over
20 years in the decorated apparel industry, is
a frequent trade show and webinar speaker,
and publishes his own blog.
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people working in the area. They need to know that their effort is a
major part of the success of the company. Think about your shop. Is
that how you view it?
Do you stress the importance of craftsmanship in your screen room?
Do your staff think about how important they are to the operation or
are they seen as basically one step below the janitor in the pecking
order? Where is the respect?
Strategic investment
Want better success in your shop? Train and man the screen room
with better employees and give them the support they need to run
the department well. Before you start adding more autos to your
shop, think about updating and automating the equipment in the
screen room to keep up.
Auto-coaters are essential for precise coating. Get the model that
can handle two at once. While they’re working, your employee can
be doing something else. Multi-tasking equals efficiency.
If you are burning more than 50 screens a day, look to getting
a computer-to-screen imaging system. Yep, they are expensive.
However, you are already spending money on film, labour and film
storage work. Replace all that and go digital. Track your labour and
expenses for a month and do the maths. Maybe it will make sense
for your shop, maybe it won’t, but the benefit will be better screens,
no pinholes, no filing films ever again, and pre-registered screens for
your press – which makes things easier on the production floor. Can’t
afford top of the line new? Look for used ones.
Find an emulsion that works well for your purpose and use a step
wedge exposure calculator test to dial in the exposure time. It’s crucial
that you do this step. Yes, it’s like homework. You have to do the
maths to achieve the results you desire though. Guessing just doesn’t
work so well, it turns out.
Make sure you properly rinse your screens too. Sometimes you can’t
just power wash them either. Train your staff that a few patient mo-
ments with a hose can save you from having to redo the screen when
you blow out the details in a halftone or fine line with your pressure
washer that’s set to the fire hose setting. There is craftsmanship
needed in every job.
Finally, while nobody likes to be the guy that cleans the screens after
they are layered in ink, this is an incredibly important step. Make sure
your printers do their part and card as much of the excess ink off the
screen as possible before sending it in for reclaim. This includes get-
ting the ink all around the frames. If they don’t, give them a day or
two cleaning screens and they will quickly understand that you can’t
leave a mess for someone else.
Whether you just use a dip tank, hand-wash system, or auto-clean-
ing machine, make sure the screens are perfectly clean, free from
grease or haze, dry and ready to coat. Quality has to come first here,
as a clean screen is the foundation for everything to follow.
For screen print production, that represents ‘solving A’. Get that
right and watch as B, your printing success, improves as a result. i