What you can’t see is important in screen making Screen room personnel often use sight and touch to determine when a screen is ready to shoot, but quite often it is what we can’t see that affects the final stencil. Moisture can be trapped in the emulsion coating. The emulsion feels dry to the touch on both sides but the emulsion next to the mesh may still hold moisture. This interferes with the exposure light. A moisture meter like the one shown to the left can tell the screen room workers when the screen is dry enough to expose.
My screens won’t reclaim easily, Why? When a emulsion ‘locks in’ a screen during reclaiming it can be very difficult to remove. The cure is prevention and following good screen making techniques. Under exposure leaves pure photopolymer emulsions sensitive to screen openers, hot screen cleaning chemistries and make reclaiming difficult.
