Yellow mesh and white mesh (and the occasional orange mesh)
12 October, 2008 – 12:01 pmThere are two main colors of mesh; yellow and white. There also is orange, which is not that common, and only used in high mesh counts where yellow would be just as appropriate. I know of no real benefit to using orange mesh instead of yellow.
The main working difference between yellow and white mesh is the burn time. Yellow mesh needs to burn 25% longer than white mesh (orange mesh burns 50% longer). If you’ve got a nice exposure unit and your burn time for a white mesh screen is four minutes, with yellow it would be five minutes, and orange would be six minutes.
Yellow mesh allows halftone dots to be captured better, so that is the reason that only high mesh counts (196+ in my experience) use yellow mesh. You wouldn’t want to do serious half toning with a white screen.
I have my exposure unit on a giant wooden table, one that I made out of the crate that my conveyor belt oven came in. There is an area close to the exposure unit where I keep notes on burn times. You should keep notes, both when using a new unit or a new emulsion and trying to figure out the proper burn time, and over time as the bulbs degrade and you’ll need to slowly increase the burn time.
3 Responses to “Yellow mesh and white mesh (and the occasional orange mesh)”
Yeah, I always scratch my head a little about this, because you have two things going on with the mesh. The higher your mesh count, the lower your exposure time. The lower mesh holds more emulsion in it requiring a longer exposure. Yet when you go to a higher mesh count, like 200, then they use the yellow mesh requiring longer exposure. So it’s like they work in opposite directions. But I guess the nice thing is that it’s art and not just science, so you can experiment until you find what works.
I did the same thing with my dryer crate, so props on that.
I’m just getting going in screen printing, and taking notes on EVERYTHING has been crucial. I always do a job and think, “oh, I’ll just remember my settings.” I always forgot! Now I keep a notebook by my exposure unit and a separate one at my press where I can record how different types of ink prints through different mesh screens.
Thanks for all the great posts.
Peace. . .
By Scott Ellis on Oct 14, 2008
does the color of the mesh really matter?
By mike taylor on Dec 3, 2008
Mike- Yes. Yellow and orange must be burned longer. Yellow and orange also allow for finer detail in burning and creation of halftone dots. They also prevent light scattering, which is a problem I’m having with my exposure unit, where the multiple sources of light make the stencil slightly smaller than the design on the film, making butt registration of low detail and discharge multi-color designs difficult.
By Stuart on Jan 27, 2009