Printing film positives on Latex, what works?

[sinclairgraphics1]

I have a client that's interested in having some films made for screen printing. He asked if I could print them on my HP latex. I have experience printing films on a mimaki for a company I worked for about 10 years ago and it worked great. What brand of material and settings would work on the latex? Should I try to get into this or outsource it? The client is a very big screen printer with 3 locations so I want to make sure they are happy and getting a quality product. Please advise

 

[chafro]

I print beautiful positives with clear lexan film.

 

[d fleming]

I would want to check registration of films because of the heat latex printers apply to the film during printing before I shot screens.

 

[sinclairgraphics1]

I print beautiful positives with clear lexan film.

What machine are you using? Is the black very rich and opaque? What thickness of lexan? I'd be interested in seeing some sample pics of what you've done.

Thanks

 

[chafro]

I use .1" lexan.

I even print color prints in this material and it comes out looking great. My heat settings are at max and have to print in at least 16 pass in the smaller printers. L25500 doesn't print lexan very good.

I have print in the L26500 , Lx360 and the LX850.

the black is very good for front light applications. I screen print white for color prints and the black is perfect. If you want it as a backlight ,only the big printers can dry the amount of ink you need. I have done backlights in lexan in the lx850 and they come out great.

 

[sinclairgraphics1]

Any other film material you'd recommend or settings on the Latex?

 

[Chimuka]

I have printed on 3M laminate with the plastic liner. It behaved well for me.

 

[sinclairgraphics1]

Which laminate did you use? How about your settings, was this on a Latex?

 

[Chimuka]

It was the 3M 8518 with synthetic liner, The printer is a HP 310 latex, heat set at 225, I suspect the I could go down to 200 and it would cure fine.

 

[sinclairgraphics1]

So this is the laminate you used? http://www.grimco.com/Products.aspx?cid=44650&pid=00722 It doesn't mention anything about a synthetic liner so wanted to make sure this is it. Do you print it reversed or regular?

 

[CMGman]

For anyone still interested, we output our screen print positives on a HP latex 310 using HP Backlit Polyester film. We use Flexi Basic and print with "no color correction" checked. In illustrator we set up as CMYK and apply 100% to the black and around 60% to the cyan. When outputting to flexi basic, the "no color correction" tab allows for the positives to come out crisp and opaque.

 

[Danr2c2]

For anyone still interested, we output our screen print positives on a HP latex 310 using HP Backlit Polyester film. We use Flexi Basic and print with "no color correction" checked. In illustrator we set up as CMYK and apply 100% to the black and around 60% to the cyan. When outputting to flexi basic, the "no color correction" tab allows for the positives to come out crisp and opaque.

Thank you for this very informative post! One question: Which side do you lay on the emulsion? Do you lay the printed side down on the emulsion or is the printed side facing up and the back is on the emulsion?

 

[CMGman]

Thank you for this very informative post! One question: Which side do you lay on the emulsion? Do you lay the printed side down on the emulsion or is the printed side facing up and the back is on the emulsion?

We print out our films right side up and place them on our exposure unit right side up then place the screen on top of the film. So the latex ink side is in contact with the bottom of the screen. This puts the ink in direct contact with the emulsion. We have never had any issues.
I hope that helps.

 

[Danr2c2]

We print out our films right side up and place them on our exposure unit right side up then place the screen on top of the film. So the latex ink side is in contact with the bottom of the screen. This puts the ink in direct contact with the emulsion. We have never had any issues.
I hope that helps.

Awesome, thank you!

 

[BigfishDM]

Awesome, thank you!

I sell actual clear film for this application in Latex and it prints killer! Info below if anyone is interested:

24"x100' $35.00
36"x100' $55.00