by Roger L. Jennings
Congratulations! You have made the right decision by buying retensionable frames.
The key to excellence in print quality, ease of printing, eliminating that dirty job of cleaning the bottoms of screens during the printing process is the retensionable frame. Wood, welded and curved screens will not yield equal mesh tension and do not allow retensioning mesh which is required for the best quality printing.
These frames will have the greatest impact on your business, and you will soon realize you were in the dark ages and didn't know it. Well, world, here you come!
Assembly: Make sure the slot in the square bar is on the side closest to the center of the frame. Make sure the lines on the rollers are outboard of the mesh.
Click on Photo to Enlarge
Easy Mesh Insertion Instructions with some hot tips!
1. Do not cut mesh. You can snip the edge with scissors to start a tear, but always tear mesh. Mesh tears along a thread line, and a tear will be straight. This will allow insertion of mesh with the threads parallel to the frame, and bringing the mesh to its maximum potential tension.
2. Overlap the slot in the bar side by no more than 3/8" with the mesh. A short dimension like 3/8" will allow visual inspection to be sure the torn edge, or mill finish edge, of mesh is parallel to the slot before insertion of the mesh. This is the most important step.
Rolling the mesh over the locking nylon rods, using the rods to develop even tension, is an advantage of the Diamond Chase frame. Insert the rods so that the rod closer to the center of the frame is inserted first. This will hold the mesh thread line parallel to the frame. Use the insertion tool (pizza cutter style) to roll the rods in. Make sure they are fully seated.
3. Clip with scissors the 2 corners of the mesh so that the nuts on each end of the bar side of a cap frame do not interfere with the mesh.
4. Pull the mesh evenly over the roller opposite the bar side, being sure the mesh tension is even, and insert the 2 nylon rods to lock the mesh in place. Make sure the rods are seated. There are 5 diameters of rods. You will want to make sure you are using the rod color designated for the mesh count you are using.
Color
Mesh
Count
Blue
110 - 305 Standard
rod
Black
80 - 110
Under sized rod
Smooth Blue Under 80
Double
under sized
White
355 - 420
Oversized
Red
Over 420 Double
Over sized
(a) This information applies to
standard mesh diameters.
(b) Rods can be mixed, but the larger rod
should be kept to the inside.
Locking rods should never be difficult going into the roller of the frame. If the rods are tight going in, the locking rods are too big.
If a locking rod is too small, mesh will slip, and excessive tension will be lost.
5. Now is the 2nd most important step. View whether the mesh overlaps the 2 remaining rollers so that the mesh edge is parallel to the rollers. If not parallel, pull the mesh in the direction necessary to make the mesh parallel to the remaining 2 rollers.
6. Pull the slack out of the mesh over these remaining 2 rollers, making sure the mesh is being pulled evenly, and insert the 2 nylon rods in each roller.
7a. Shirt frames require softening corners so that the mesh will not rip when tensioned. The corner is softened by using needle nose pliers to lift the outside nylon rod out of 1" of each slot of the 2 sides that form the corner of the frame. While the rods are temporarily out of the slots, depress the mesh in the corner so that some of the mesh will move under the rods and into the corner. Then re-insert the nylon rods with the insertion tool tipped on the rod that needs to be inserted into the slot . All 4 corners must be softened to avoid tears.
7b. Cap frames should not be softened. Rather, be sure the nylon rods are inserted as close to the flat bar side as possible when inserting mesh into the 2 short rollers. This will create greater tension in the two corners close to the flat bar so that there is tension in and near the image area. The other corners will become soft.
8. After inserting the nylon rods in all 4 sides, trim the excess mesh at the corners. If excess mesh overlaps any of the rollers, snip the mesh with scissors to start a tear about 1/2" away from the nylon rods, and tear the remaining mesh. If the torn mesh is parallel to the roller, the mesh has been inserted so that the threads are parallel to the rollers, and significantly high mesh tension and print quality can be achieved.
9. Place the frame on 4 squares cut from squeegee blades at the 4 corners of the frame. Make sure the table is flat, because the frame will mirror the table.
Prepare for tensioning by putting the open ended wrench on the large nut end of the roller to keep the roller from rotating. Then unlock the smaller nuts at either end of the roller while still holding the roller in place. Then the roller can be rotated as instructed below and then tightened in place using the two smaller nuts at the ends of the roller.
Tension the mesh first from the roller opposite the bar side. If you do not have a meter, start with the wrench pointed straight up at 12 o'clock, and pull to 8 minutes after the hour. Lock the roller in place. Then go to the remaining two sides, and again start at 12 o'clock and rotate the rollers so the wrench is at 5 minutes after the hour. You will be close to maximum tension without the advantage of a meter.
Repeat the process in 2 hours, then wait another 4 hours, and then at least another 8 hours, each time moving the long roller 5 minutes on the clock and the short rollers 2-3 minutes on the clock. If you have a meter, follow the guidelines of a tension chart according to the mesh being used.
Check the frame for flatness by putting it on a glass window or exposure unit. If the frame rocks, remove one of the squeegee blades from a rocking corner, press down on the corner, and recheck against the glass until there is no rock. Flat screens are necessary for ease and quality of registration, off-contact distance and quality printing.
10. For more information, email roger @ rjennings.com, or call R Jennings Mfg. Co. (518) 798-2277, or Diamond Chase in California (714) 891-3234.
1. Always use capillary film on cap frames to avoid emulsion breakdown at the bar edge, and to provide a uniform emulsion thickness near the bar edge. This will deposit a uniform ink thickness for color control, consistent puff height, and thickness of high density ink. Curved screens and wood screens have no tension and cannot achieve these levels of quality.
2. Use a triple durometer squeegee, e.g. 70-90-70 with a square edge. Squeegee blade tips flare out, yielding less pressure and a different print, when compared to the print from the middle of the squeegee blade. Frequently images are close to the bar side of the frame, as close as 1/16", and the lower and different pressure at the bottom of the image can be avoided by using a laminated squeegee blade with 90 durometer to prevent deflection.
3. Make sure the mesh is on contact with the platen in the entire image area before attempting to register the image to the positive. The graph on the Jennings cap platen will help center the image and insure the image prints parallel to the bill of the cap.
4. Print off-contact 1/32" - 1/16" keeping your hands off of the frame while printing. Keeping your hands off will insure the off-contact is achieved.
5. Print by locking the wrist and elbow with a squeegee angle to the mesh at about 45 degrees. Most people use a higher angle and have to pull the squeegee twice. Rather than moving the arm to print, step back to achieve the print stroke for the first 5-6 caps. This will make the person printing sensitive to keep the squeegee at a uniform angle while printing rather than lifting the elbow which would change the angle and print quality.
6. For more tips, email roger @ rjennings.com or call R Jennings Manufacturing.
Capillary Film
Screen Tension
Thickness in
in Newtons/cm2
Mesh Microns
(Retensioned)
Application
60 50-200
55
3-D
ink
86-110 40 - 50
45
Puff ink; light on dark
fabrics; 3-D ink
160 30 - 40
35
Most line art on light
garments
220 20 - 30
30
Halftones
305
20
30
4-Color Process manual printing
Click on Photos to Enlarge
(C) 1996, 2002 R Jennings Manufacturing Company, Inc.