In the process of screen printing, the best printing equipment in the world can do no better than the screen it holds. A good frame must be stable enough to maintain its squareness and flatness under the force of the highest mesh tension. Even if a frame is stable and does not change, however, the mesh does. The fibers of the best mesh begin to relax soon after the force of the squeegee is applied. Anyone who has tried to tune a new guitar string knows about this. The Newman Roller Frame® meets the rigidity and stability requirements. The Newman Roller Frame® then goes further, actually strengthening the characteristics of the mesh with each retensioning between print runs, and after reclaiming.
Change is the printer's biggest enemy. Loss in screen tension causes image distortion, mis-registration, blurred-edges, color shifts, multiple print strokes, dot gain, uneven emulsion coats, ink penetration through the garment, and ink build-up on the bottom of screens. Change in tension will require ink, squeegee, and press adjustments - notably off-contact and re-registration. Change in tension produces loss of quality, productivity, and control.
Screens made with Newman Roller Frames will begin to loose tension during and after the first print run just like any stretch and glue rigid frame. Therefore, the first time new mesh is used for printing is should be used for less critical work. Once the mesh has been used for 2-3 print runs and been reclaimed and retensioned between each run, it will be stable enough for you to achieve the most demanding and difficult multi-color printing. The screen tension should be measured each time after each reclaiming. A screen should be retensioned if it has lost 2 or more Newtons/cm. The screens can be retensioned to very high tensions at this point.
Greater than expected improvements occur from the exclusive use of high-tension screens in both print quality and printing efficiency. These benefits accrue from the following 3 conditions: [1] Screens that have high-tension (35 Newtons /cm or higher) [2] uniform tension (± 2 Newton/cm), and [3] whose use is exclusively dedicated on any one printing machine. Retensionability enables screen tension to work as a constant, unchanging, and powerful ink deposition force, as opposed to permanently glued screens where screen tension is always a variable, and often, a weak ink deposition force.
Don Newman
President - Stretch Devices, Inc.
