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[June 2003]
Photostencil Film Delivers High Volume Quality and Consistency for Decal Producer
Capillex photostencil films, manufactured by Autotype International Ltd (Wantage, Oxon, England), are playing an important role in helping the ceramic printer Emery Colours (Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, England) to both maintain high standards of quality, definition and consistency for decals (transfers) and to make significant reductions in order response times.
Emery Colours, best known for its production of ceramic colours and enamels, merged in recent times with Capper Rataud, enabling it to extend its services to include high volume decal printing. Today, the company's customers include many of the world's major designers and suppliers of high quality bone and fine china tableware.
Print Manager Brian Ward explained: "Over the years, we have built a reputation for exceptionally high levels of quality; for example, we regularly print transfers in up to 12 colours and at a resolution beyond the scope of most screenprinting. Perhaps as importantly, our business is continually changing to reflect the needs of our customers; as a result, we have had to steadily reduce our lead times to remain competitive. The challenge has been to maintain our quality standards while cutting the time required for design, proofing and production".
Emery Colours normally uses Capillex 18 photostencil film as it provides excellent levels of definition and enables the company to reproduce extremely delicate images with fine lines. Emery says it can achieve high mesh counts without encountering the problems normally associated with dot gain or fill, even where there is a low tonal range, in often complex or extremely detailed patterns that include floral and botanical designs, animals and birds.
Capillex has been developed to provide a wide processing latitude and consistent results, while being easy to handle and process. These are important benefits for Emery Colours as they help to ensure that screens can be produced quickly and simply and minimise the risk of screens having to be scrapped due to handling or processing errors.
The ceramic inks used by Emery Colours are extremely aggressive and eventually cause the screen materials to degrade. Typically, screens last for over 10,000 impressions before they need to be replaced which, as Brian Ward commented, is good considering the nature of the inks, but places greater demands on the performance of both the screen materials and the production processes to ensure that screen quality and consistency is maintained.
He concluded: "We have previously tried competing products but found that they did not offer the same degree of quality and consistency in high volume transfer printing that we can achieve using the combination of Autotype Capillex film and Sericol screen materials".
Web site: www.autotype.com
ENDS