Many know that the flood bar on an automatic and the flood stroke move the ink into position for the squeegee but many do not fully understand the more important task. The flood bar spreads ink along the length of the screen yes, but it also forces the ink into the mesh and "stencil well". The Stencil Well is the thickness of the emulsion layer on the "print side" of the screen that holds the ink until the squeegee "sheers" that connection and transfers the ink to the garment. Remember our conversation about "proper screen drying", now you are putting that to work. This is why only a small amount of squeegee pressure is actually needed. You want as much ink as possible to be left behind on the garment and not scooped back up by the squeegee.

Frankly speaking, you need to know this if you are to be a good Screen Printer. This is how Screen Printing is done.

Now you know more than you did before about "high-density" printing. Funny how all this stuff is connected.

Posted in Frank Lee Blog

Inkjet printers have become the standard for film output today. They work very well but users are not taking enough time to fully understand them.

Inkjet printers spray ink and if they are not used enough those nozzles will clog creating downtime.

Prevent trouble, use them often and learn your printer utility software functions that perform head cleans and nozzles checks.

Posted in Frank Lee Blog

Printers use ink and ink runs out. Don’t just have one set of ink in the printer – have a backup set waiting. You are going to use it to make money so don’t be afraid to invest in stock as you do with all other items. Downtime caused because you ran out of ink is costly. There is no good reason for this to happen.

Frankly, don’t be "penny wise and pound foolish".

Posted in Frank Lee Blog

Epson and other printers setup these devices to have a "zero tolerance" when it comes to ink. If one ink is out then the printer stops working. If one computer chip on a cartridge goes bad then the printer stops printing. If you get a new set of inks and one cartridge is damaged then the printer will not print.

Frankly, be smart, give yourself a fighting chance. Have stock of inks so you can swap cartridges if needed. Get a refund or replacement later, but keep yourself working now.

Posted in Frank Lee Blog

You are a screen printer so you make films and films use only black ink so why do you have color ink in your printer? Oh yes, that was Epson’s idea because that is all they sell, but you have different needs.

Color inks that sit idle can and more likely will dry up and clog your inkjet so don’t spend your money on things that not only cost you money, they don’t make you money, and create downtime and clogs.

AccuRIP is the only RIP in the world that handles ALL BLACK printing. It’s the only RIP that makes sense for your job description.

Frankly, running ALL BLACK inks all the time is a part of keeping your inkjet printer healthy and is a proper way to spend your money. Do what you will but this is proper on so many levels. Stop using any RIP that cannot do this for you and switch to AccuRIP.

Posted in Frank Lee Blog