Using Screen Tape to Maximize Efficiency

Posted by Harvey Cole - Outside Sales on 3/30/2016

Properly utilizing a quality screen tape such as PMI Split Tape is a great way to reduce your screen work area and increase efficiency.

Usually when you have a screen printing job that requires multiple colors and you have to burn several screens, it almost always happens that one or more of your screens will have a very small area of a certain color, yet for proper registration you must almost always coat an entire screen with emulsion and burn the image.  Although your screen size may be large, your work area may only be a few inches or less in some cases.  Here is where proper taping of your image will save you wasted time and ink and make cleanup easier and faster on your screen printing equipment and frames. 

Consider a wider size tape such as our PMI 3" Blockout Tape.  I still see some shops use simple masking tape, but masking tape in most cases has a much more aggressive adhesion that can pull your emulsion and in some cases perhaps even damage the screen mesh as well.  The blockout tapes that we sell almost all have a less aggressive adhesion that peels away easy for fast cleanup.  Have a look at this video for a demonstration of the application and adhesion properties -

As you can see, this is a fast and economical choice for reducing the work area of the frame which will make your subsequent equipment cleanup a breeze.  

Our PMI Split Tape is a tape that is specially manufactured for use by screen printers, as it has 2 section of the tape in a cross/section type configuration.  Half of the tape is designed for screen adhesion and the other is designed for adhesion to your aluminum frame or wooden frame material.  It is designed to be both applied an removed quickly, is economical, and will save you time and resources in your shop.  Here is a video that demonstrates just how easy the split tape is to apply - 

The tapes themselves have so many advantages over normal masking tape that it makes it almost impossible to use masking tape again once you have used these PMI products in your shop.  As always, Texsource has the entire product line in stock at all of our US locations, ready to ship.  Contact us if you would like to try some of these PMI tapes in your shop - we can arrange sample products to be sent to you to try out.  You will not find a better deal anywhere than you can get here at Texsource, the largest distributor of screen printing equipment and supplies in the US!