Screen drying cabinets are designed for the screen printing shops pre-press or dark room. Making screens is the most critical part of the t-shirt and graphics of screen printing process. Proper drying of liquid emulsion or capillary films in a dark environment, and the prevention of contaminates, such as dust, dirt, and lint is important to reduce pin holes and image resolution. Ranar offers two models, the SD-2331, and the SD-2848. Screen drying cabinets offer storage to place for your screen frames. To speed the process Ranar Manufacturing has designed, a sealed cabinet air system which picks up moisture and exhausts it. This is done by taking room temperature air thru a filter, warming it with a heater which has a variable control and digital thermometer to monitor the cabinet’s interior temperature. Emulsion manufacturers recommend drying screen printing emulsion at temperatures of 90F to 100F degrees with 50% humidity. A blower moves the warmed evenly air across the frames horizontally eliminating build up of excess moisture, this air is then exhausted.

Screen Prep & Reclaiming Tips for Textile, Graphics, & T-shirt Screen Printing

Step (1) Before applying emulsion or films to new screens proper mesh prep is required. Scrub the mesh with a degreaser, then rinse and dry using compressed air or vacuum.
If you’re reclaiming used screens, first remove all ink, and then apply a good quality emulsion remover. Repeat Step (1), then pressure wash or pressure nozzle to remove old emulsion, and then dry.
Reclaiming screens using a dip tank with Franmar’s one step solution offers an alternative. Take your screen with left over ink residue and place into the dip tank. The one-step solution will remove all the ink and the emulsion at one time then repeat step (1)
Step (2) Apply liquid photopolymer emulsion which becomes light sensitive when dry. Use a scoop coater or plastic paddle to coat lengthwise one pass evenly from bottom to top. You can apply another coat after the screen printing emulsion has dried. Remember to coat in dark or subdued light. A screen drying cabinet works best to do this.
Step (3) When dry, your screen is ready to be exposed. Use a screen exposure unit with high output UV lights to burn the image into the screen mesh. Remember your film positive must be 100% black for the areas that will print ink. The black area will block light from hitting the emulsion. Now the unexposed emulsion on the screen can be washed out using water with a pressure nozzle. A wash out booth or sink would be helpful to do this.

Note: Do not take into sunlight to wash out your design as the sun light will cure all the emulsion and your screen will not wash out.