Polymer Plate Intaglio

Polymer Plate Intaglio Steps

AQUATINT SCREEN
The aquatint screen is needed to establish a textured surface that can hold the ink to the plate in the dark areas. This texture can be established in several ways, one of the most consistent ways is to use a random dot screen that when used to expose the intaglio plate to will yield an overall grain in the dark areas. When wiped it will be able to hold a nice full black.
You can down load this “AquatintScreen.pdf” and use it to print out on to laser transparency.
OR
If you wish to create your own follow these steps.

MAKING THE AQUATINT FILE

  1. In Photoshop open a new Letter size Gray scale 300 dpi document.
  2. Add a new layer and fill the layer with Black
  3. Adjust the new layers Opacity to 80%
  4. Flatten the Image
  5. Change the Gray scale to a Bitmap
  6. Make it a 150 ppi Diffusion Dither
  7. Change the Mode back to Gray scale.

PRINTING TRANSPARENCY

  1. Print your file on a piece of clear laser transparency.
  2. Be careful when handling the screen because the surface is vey receptive to hand oils etc..
  3. You need to use this screen whenever you expose a transparency that has any large black areas.

EXPOSURE:

  1. The general exposure time for our plate maker is ~ 20 units.
  2. This will establish an overall tooth or grain on the plate that can hold the ink.
  1. Remove the screen and replace it with the image Transparency. Exposure time for the Image transparency is about 15 units.

 

DEVELOPING:

  1. Remove the plastic cover sheet on the plate and wet the whole plate with water
  2. Brush the plate continually with the soft brush dipping it in the water for fresh coverage. Develop for 45 seconds.
  3. When the time is up dip the whole plate one more time in the water
  4. Quickly pat the plate dry with fresh paper towels or news print.
  5. After the water has been patted dry continue to dry the plate with a hair dryer for another 4-5 minutes.

HARDENING & FIXING

  1. After it has been dried it still needs to be post exposed to the UV light to Harden. You can do this by placing it back in the platemaker or by setting the plate out in the sun. Letting the UV light harden the surface of the plate. Expose for at least 30 units of light .. or allowing to sit in the sun for 30 min. It is even better if the plate can rest over night.
  2. DO NOT DEVELOP OR RUN WATER ON IT AGAIN!!!