Screen Printing

Exercise 07.05: Reclaim

Jason W. Howell
February 2, 2017

Goal

The goal of this exer­cise is to develop the proper tech­nique for return­ing a screen to a con­di­tion for future printing.

Objective

The objec­tive of this exer­cise is to reclaim (remove emul­sion), clean, rinse and dry a screen. 

Background Reading

  • Mac­Dougall, Chap­ter 5, p 62–63

Safety Notice

  • Fail­ure to fol­low rules guard­ing emul­sion remover can cause injury.
  • Emul­sion remover is an eye, inhala­tion and skin hazard.
  • Safety apparel required: gloves, safety glasses, ear plugs, respirator
  • Safety Data Sheet (SDS) Index

Exercise

Remov­ing a pre­vi­ous sten­cil is the last task in cre­at­ing a print. This step com­pletes the pro­duc­tion cycle for a print or a color. Prepar­ing a clean and dry screen is an essen­tial first step in cre­at­ing the next print.

This step is the most haz­ardous and likely to ruin the screen. Please use cau­tion and fol­low directions.

Part One

Turn on the water and back­light to the washout booth. Put on safety gear. Place only one screen at a time in the holder and gen­tly wet both sides. Make sure the entire screen and all emul­sion is wet.

Warn­ing: Do not allow emul­sion remover to dry in the screen. Doing so will cause per­ma­nent dam­age to the screen.

Part Two

Start the timer for the emul­sion remover. Spray the squeegee side with emul­sion remover and then gen­tly brush. Flip the screen over and repeat on the other side.

The emul­sion will start to break down and delam­i­nate from screen. Watch out for thick spots. Spray remover and scrub more as needed for these spots.

When timer reaches 1 minute 30 sec­onds, begin spray­ing the screen with water from top to bot­tom. Most emul­sion will wash away, but spray with a high pres­sure to blast all remain­ing emul­sion from the screen. Use an over­lap­ping pat­tern from top to bot­tom, left to right.

Imme­di­ately repeat as needed start­ing timer over.

Technical Specifications

  • Ulano emul­sion remover num­ber 6
  • 1 minute 30 sec­onds work­ing time

Assessment

  • The fol­low­ing rubric posted on D2L will deter­mine assign­ment score: Exer­cise Grading

Techniques

Obser­va­tion, nota­tions, inves­ti­ga­tion, writ­ing, diagraming

Supplies

Com­puter, appro­pri­ate soft­ware, appro­pri­ate D2L discussions

Deadlines

Monday/Wednesday, Feb­ru­ary 13⁄15, 2017. Exer­cise given.

Monday/Wednesday, Feb­ru­ary 13⁄15, 2017. Observed by instruc­tor as part of group demonstration.