Secret formula of the day,
Emulsion is a dense chemical compound used in screen printing. It’s a mixture of a few things. Gelatin plus water plus potassium dichromate are basic ingredients of this compound. This is normally called an emulsion of silk screen.
There are many companies selling emulsion for silk screens like sericole Germane or many of Thailand companies prepare solutions for layering a silk screen but the most of them use the same formula. If you want to prepare your own compound you should follow the following steps,
1. Gelatin 1 kilo gram
2. Water 10 kilo grams
First of all grind the entire gelatin in a grinder. Then put it into a pot. Pot should be a little wider suitable for the compound size. Now put water into the pot and bring this mixture onto the stove. You should keep it on the stove for a long time, almost for 2 hours, but with a very little flame of fire. Gelatin should be resolved into the water and water should be a very pasty compound. Water turns into a paste. It’s a paste with normal gelatin color. Although this compound is sufficient for the use of preparing a silk screen, but it cannot be kept for long time. If you keep it for long time it becomes harder and then of no use. So what should you do now? For saving the compound for the future?
Get some corn flour and put it into the compound. It will save it from being corrupted. Do not put a big amount of corn flour into it because if you do so the emulsion will not work properly as you want.
When your emulsion is ready, you are ready to mix potassium dichromate into it. but first you should prepare potassium dichromate in water. Get one gram of potassium dichromate and ¼ liter of water. Mix them into each other. Water will be turned pink or red. Keep potassium dichromate from the light because it’s light sensitive, if works in darkness. In light it looses its quality.
Your silk screen emulsion is ready. For one screen you do not need much amount of emulsion. It’s simple as you know. Get a spoon of emulsion. Mix 12 or less than 20 drops of potassium dichromate solution into it and layer it onto your screen. When you are layering it keep in mind that you should be in half dark place like dark room.
After layering the screen in dark room, you should dry the screen with hair dryer and then expose it. enjoy this great formula, and ask questions if you have any.