I want to cover a couple mesh products, if you're going to print on mesh with a Latex printer.
Um, this mesh is a certified mesh.
This is my go to mesh. This is what I print on most of the time.
This is an Ultraflex UltraMesh premium 328, certified for latex.
No issues, but no liner. You use the ink collector,
and you print onto the mesh, there's no liner, the ink goes into the ink collector.
This is how I recommend dealing with mesh. This prints effectively just like a banner.
Think of it almost like a banner with holes in it,
and then you can use this mesh for any mesh applicable things, like outdoor fencing.
The idea of the holes is that air passes through it and it doesn't have to be as strong.
They use it a lot for, you know, visual effects,
especially hanging on buildings and things like that, where the people inside need to see out,
and then you can also see the image especially at a distance.
Mesh is widely used. This 328 is a certified mesh from Ultraflex, no liner.
Here's the thing though.
If you have a 300 series printer, um, a 335, for example, or a 315,
where you don't have a mesh kit, you don't have the ink collector, you, if you were to print on that mesh,
it's going to go all over your platen. In that case, you need a liner,
and a linered mesh has some different expectations.
Here's what to look for.
When you're printing with a linered mesh, the liner absorbs the ink.
However, there's always been notorious issues with all linered meshes, where one of several things happens.
One is, the liner separates from the mesh,
either because it doesn't adhere to it that well, or it's old, and while you're printing,
the liner is being held down by the vacuum, but the mesh is actually coming off it.
That rarely works. Usually what you end up with there is a nasty head strike,
because they're separating from one another, and you don't want that to occur.
The second thing that may happen is if you have too much heat and the liner stays on.
It may bond to the mesh in a way that when you try to pull them apart,
they don't want to come apart, and you end up with all these tearing these little pieces.
That's not good either.
So, what you want to do, usually, when I'm running a mesh with a liner, is I'm going to run it slow,
I'm going to run it at lower temperatures, and I'm going to control how much ink is on here.
In this case, this is a product from Halead,
it's a Chinese manufacturer, and this is their mesh banner, eight-ounce.
I ran this at 12 pass, with probably 110 percent or 100 percent ink, and I lower that temperature.
Now, here's the challenge, when I run mesh, I tend to put more ink on it,
because when you peel away the mesh and you hang it up,
you're taking all these holes out, and the holes are going to make it look lighter than it is.
So, usually with things, like, uh, uh, window perf and mesh, when you have holed substance,
substrate, I tend to want to put more ink down.
I want to put 150 percent ink on this if I can, but then you've got to keep in mind,
because you don't want the liner to bond to the mesh, you have to lower the temperature.
So, there may even be a call for doing something like this, at a higher ink load,
almost treating it like half-way to a backlit.
But then you've got to run it slow, because you can't put that heat on it.
If you do, you're going to fuse the liner to the mesh, and that's not going to work either.
So, with certain meshes like this, where you're running with say a 335 or a 315,
I would tend to run 16 pass, with 130 or 150 percent ink.
I want to put more ink down.
Treat it almost like you're going towards a backlit, but then I'm going to lower that temperature,
and if necessary even use an inter-pass delay.
If need be, I will run 12 pass with a high inter-pass delay and a higher ink load,
so that I can achieve my goal while still keeping a low temperature,
so that when this is finished I can peel away the liner,
I got a nice rich ink load but it also doesn't stick to the mesh.
Just some things to consider about linered mesh.
If you can, and you have a 365 or a 500, this unlinered 328, no liner, definitely make your life easier.
But, otherwise I would definitely consider slow.
Uh, if you need to, put some extra ink on it,
and you want to be careful that you don't either separate the liner or bond the liner.
Both of those are undesirable, and if you separate the liner, you'll know what I mean,
because it makes it almost impossible to get through the printer.