THE DIFFERENCES IN SCREEN PRINTING MESH COUNT?

THE DIFFERENCES IN SCREEN PRINTING MESH COUNT?

When looking at screens for screen printing you may notice two different numbers for the same screen. These are UK and US types of measurements. In the UK, the ‘T count’ refers to the number of threads per centimetre. In the US, the number refers to the number of threads per inch. As it’s based on a larger area, the US number is always higher.

A quick note, mesh will either be yellow or white in colour. The difference here is that the yellow mesh absorbs more light compared to white mesh. It stops light scattering, therefore helping expose intricate details in designs,screen printing

A little reminder. Different mesh counts will hold different amounts of emulsion for screen printing, this is due to the size difference in the holes and variation in thread thickness on coarser mesh counts. Therefore a lower mesh count will hold a higher amount of emulsion. But don’t worry, the difference isn’t extreme. You may just need to change up exposure times ever so slightly to allow for the amount of emulsion on the screen. More emulsion on the screen, means longer exposure times for screen printing