Computer to Screen, CTS, is set to become the standard for developing screens for screen printing including textile printing. It is a truly great technology that will do a lot to keep screen printing competitive both when it comes to keeping unit price low and print quality high. However implementing a CTS system in any workflow raises a number of issues that must be addressed if the project is to have a positive effect. Some of these are less obvious and some needs to be addressed as early on as possible.

Many screen printers and textile printers especially are storing films in drawers and boxes in order to quickly and cheaply create screens with the same artwork over and over again; for example when customers do repeat orders.With the implementation of a CTS system any film archive will be rendered almost useless and worthless. In order to make the transition to CTS as successful and profitable as possible, we suggest that any company considering CTS within the next 5 years start preparing a film-less workflow right away. The RSK Logobank is the ideal system for textile printers to store graphical files and artwork along with all the data relating to the logos. When you need any artwork out on film you can find the graphical file instantly, print it out on film, expose the screen, and put the film to recycling. The time you save in this process compared to using the traditional archive outweighs the extra cost for film easily. It does take a significant amount of time to both get comfortable with a digital archive and to digitalise the existing traditional film archive. For the projects that we have been involved in we have seen that a gradual, and therefore slow, process is more economical.

Click here to learn more about RSK Logobank and all the advantages of using this product in your workflow.

You can contact us now to get more information about how we can assist you in your CTS project, and you can also sign up on our site.

Jet or DLP?

At the moment there are two types of CTS systems available. The Jet systems works like a big inkjet printer and sprays wax directly on the screen which is then exposed traditionally and the wax is washed out with the unneeded emulsion. he advantage of the jets is that it is a tried and tested technology with a huge installed base already, and generally speaking it is the cheapest system. The DLP, Digital Light Processing, systems are exposing the screen directly, which means that all that is left to be done after exposure is to wash out the unneeded emulsion. The advantage of these systems is that it saves the separate step of exposing and that there are no consumables other than electricity involved (i.e. no wax). It does look like the DLP systems are the way of the future, but everyone should be very careful not to draw any conclusions too early. At the moment there is a huge premium to pay for the DLP systems and it is difficult to see how it can be justified to pay this premium. The price of wax is coming down quickly, especially as there are now many vendors of Jet CTS Systems. SignTronic has probably the best DLP machine, Lüscher the best Jet machine, and Kiwo has both systems. Kiwo has recently released a jet system specifically aimed at textile printers printing directly on t-shirts and other garments which is cheap, fast, high quality, and low-cost to use.

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