Screen Print World (SPW) has been appointed as the exclusive UK distributor of D2M-RS1, a new screen-making technology. The ‘direct-to-mesh’ machine was created through a partnership with D2M Rapid Screen of Australia and DuralChrome of Switzerland.
Set to be launched in the UK in February, the stencil-making process centres around a printable emulsion which is applied directly to the screen mesh in a negative form.
“It basically replaces emulsion pre-coating and therefore the need for film positives or CTS equipment,” explained SPW.
“This direct, printable emulsion is UV-cured and jetted onto the mesh with a patented, proprietary encapsulation technology so that both sides of the screen mesh are encapsulated and hardened simultaneously. This in turn creates a fully imaged screen ready for the press without the need of any of the additional steps normally required with traditional screen preparation. Images or negatives have pixel sharp edges and definition up to 2,400dpi. More detail is retained than with a film exposure, which can suffer from poor density, alignment errors and light undercutting.”
It has been designed to almost eliminate the steps required for stencil making using conventional photo stencil processes: it is said to get rid of the need for darkroom processes, which typically consist of film positives/CTS equipment, emulsion pre-coating, drying, screen exposure and washout procedures, as well as removing many of the chemicals and energy requirements usually needed when making stencils.
It can be placed on the print production floor, and stencils “can be prepared for printing in a fraction of the time it would take to do the same in a typical screen-printing darkroom,” said SPW, adding: “D2M reduces set-up costs and time, enabling smaller production runs to become more viable.”
It has an Alpha Print Controller and Monitor on the unit so that users can preview and output jobs, as well as build templates for precise image placement. It comes with RIP software that allows full control over halftone dot shape, angle and frequency.
Colour separations are rasterised by the RIP and sent to the control manager, where they show up as individual files that can be previewed, re-ordered and outputted. These files can be stored after the job is complete, much like storing film, and returned to the D2M-RS1 Screen whenever a repeat is ordered.
Go to imagesmag.uk/PigmentInc-D2MRapidScreen to read about the machine’s debut in Fespa last year.
