Lights For Screen Printing Exposure
Exposure lights are one of the key tools for screen printing, without them you cannot expose your screens and all your efforts would be in vein. However, with the right lights, you can expose your screens, as an alternative you can expose your screens under natural sunlight.
You can either purchase a UV exposure kit/unit which can be quite expensive or you can buy a cheap 1000wat halogen light on eBay and build your own which I have pictures of below. You must be very careful with self-built exposure lights as there is always a fire risk when using these, please don’t leave them unattended.
The units I have built with 1000wat halogen flood lights have been made with the light at about 15 inches away from the screen. A safe bet for exposure time of your screens is around about 4 minutes, this can vary dependent on your setup so you will need to experiment. Please refer to the table below which has a rough idea of different heights and lights.
Two other key points when exposing your screens before printing:
- Place a blacked-out material that sits under the screen and fits the inner edges of the screen frame and pushed very tightly on the underside of the screen mesh.
- Place a sheet of glass on top of the screen roughly the same size as the outer edge of the screen frame where you put your film positive to create a seal.
An example of this is a sheet of wood with black foam stuck to it, bare in mind the heat produced from the light may warp the foam. This is to make sure the artwork does not move when you expose your screen, otherwise, this may cause ghosting. This will be covered in more detail in the steps below.
Thank you so much for all this wonderful and helpful tips and knowledge, I really appreciate it! Thank you 🙂
No worries, glad that the guide has been of use to you I shall be planning out some more in depth information over the coming months.
Like!! Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Really thank you! Keep writing.
Over this article you will get to know about a screen printing process. It is just a proper critique blog on the topic.I am really happy to come across this exceptionally well written content. Thanks for sharing and look for more in future!!
Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to this site before but after checking through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely glad I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!
Thanks for the feedback much appreciated!
Hello! This is perfect guide for all who decides to start screen printing at home. Thank you but I think that need more information about screen reclaiming. My screen have lines of exposure time’s test after washing under pressure with Pregasol and idk what to do with it. I think that this information will be useful.
Hello Alex, hope you are well and thanks for the feedback. I am looking at more details for the screen reclamation section currently, I would say if you are still getting old designs showing after pressure washing you may need a chemical like Pregan Paste (https://www.jacksonsart.com/kiwo-pregan-paste-1kg-screen-printing-ghost-remover) to remove the old ghost images. Be careful with this chemical and make sure to use goggles and gloves as it is quite a strong chemical.
There is evidently a whole lot to know about this. I consider you created certain good points in capabilities also.
Very good article post. Really looking forward to read more. Much obliged!.
Thanks for sharing, this is a fantastic article. Much thanks again. Awesome!.
Really enjoyed this article. Thanks Again. Keep writing.
Hey thank you so much for sharing valuable steps really appreciate it. This is so helpful for those who wants to startup at Screen Printing business.
I’ve been preparing artwork for screen printing for close to 8 years at a local shop using CorelDraw. Great post on screen printing techniques with Illustrator! You covered everything that’s necessary for spot color printing. This guide will finally help me to move on over to Illustrator. Thanks!