FIRST THINGS FIRST
There are so many different ways of registering multi-colour images and we don’t claim any ideas are better than others. If it works, it works! If it doesn’t… well, maybe you need to read on…
WHICH METHOD? I’m going to talk you through a step by step guide to using our ‘Film Positive Method’. This is used when printing on a manual press and DOES NOT include a tri-lock system. It’s simple, cheap and effective.
TIPS
With screen printing I believe that the long route is the quick route. Completing these 3 steps before you expose your screen will save you a lot of time and problems later.
TIP 1: Check your screen tension. If all of your screens have a good, even tension then you will see some good results. Avoid mixing in old and/or wooden screens and make sure all of your screens are of a similar age.
If you want to be really precise you can measure your tension using a newton meter before each print job. We advise the Digital Screen Tension Meter sold by Screen Print World.
https://screenprintworld.co.uk/digital-screen-tension-meter
You can use our DISCOUNT CODE: CRP5 when purchasing anything on the Screen Print World website!
TIP 2: Check your artwork aligns. This sounds so simple but trying to align 3 screens on press and then finding out that your artwork wasn’t printed properly before you exposed your screens is like one giant kick in the face. If you haven’t already applied registration marks to your image, you can watch our video explaining how to do that before going any further!
TIP 3: Expose your image in the same place on each screen. This is helpful if your press has limited movement. We use the Kruzer by M&R which holds down each screen using 2 side arms. This limits the amount of side movement so exposing our images in the correct position is crutial. We have a registration template that you can download here to help with your placment.
THE PROCESS
Keep hold of them film positives because they are going to come in handy!
STEP 1: Secure film positives to your platen. Once you have this centered, it is really important to make sure this is secure on your platen and has no movement. You will need the registration marks flat on your platen to enable you to align your screens.
STEP 2: Set your press to a neutral position. If you have an adjustable press like ours, you will have more movement if you set everything to neutral before proceeding.
STEP 3: Loosely insert screens and set platens. At this point, with your screens loosely in place, you are able to adjust the height of your platens. Make sure you have enough room for all the screens to be aligned to the registration marks which are still secured to your platen.
STEP 4: Adjust off contact. Off contact is the space between the platen and the screen. You need to make sure this is the same distance on all of your screens and platens. For a well tensioned screen, we advise the gap to be the height of a pound coin… Or three pennys if you’re feeling cheap.
STEP 5: Line up them screens! Now everything is in place you can finally start lining up them screens by looking through the screen and aligning each registration mark up. Do this for all 3 screens (or however many colours you are working with). Take your time and be precise!
STEP 6: Do a test print. We like to fully tape our screen and go for it at this point. You can print your registration marks (flash inbetween each colour) to see if your image is perfectly aligned or not.
At this point, you should have a perfectly registered multi colour screen print. YES! Butttt, we all know that sometimes that perfect registration just didn’t come out. Don’t worry, we have a tip for that too!
This is Registration Aid, Clear Application Tape. You can get your hands on this from Screen Print World and your welcome to use our discount code again (CRP5).
https://screenprintworld.co.uk/registration-aid-clear-application-tape
You can see how we use this to troubleshoot registration in our YouTube video. Check it out and good luck!
WANNA BUY THE SHIRT?
These shirts are printed in limited edition and we are giving away a MASSIVE £10 OFF every t-shirt sale!
Just use the discount code : SQUEEGEE
not today satan – limited edition t-shirt
