Screen Printing - February/March 2013 - (Page 4)

e dito r i a l i n s i g ht s www.screenweb.com ISS RoUnDUP headline If you attend lots of trade shows, then you have the routine down: reservations, appointments, packing, transportation, setup, classes, and exhibits. After a while, it all becomes rote. I attended this ISS Long Beach, held January 17-29, 2013, and while the trade-show routine continued, the feeling of the show was refreshingly different. At the entrance, a happy troupe of Fruit of the Loom players posed for pictures. (Ah, there’s nothing like giant grapes to set the stage.) Inside the exhibition hall were lots of new products, beginning with printable garments. Hanes had lots of examples of Cool Dri, 100% polyester interlock jersey T-shirts designed for sports with a 50+ UPF rating for UV protection. Jerzees Sport also offered five styles of imprintable activewear with wicking and odor control, and they handed out takehome samples. Fruit of the Loom handed out a sample of 100% cotton, pre-shrunk Jersey, 6.0 oz, a denser fabric with shrink resistance. It had a screen-printed leopard on the front to show the sharpness of the image when printed on a tightly knit fabric. Pima Apparel Inc. handed out catalogs of their latest contributions to the printable-fashion industry. There were many other apparel manufacturers on floor. Plenty of show attendees looking at the latest shirts wore screen-printed Ts of their own design. Wilflex Inks by PolyOne had a world of color solutions, brochures, and a teaching display featuring Mark Coudray live. Wilflex Epic Specialty inks came in liquid silver, yellow sparkle, ultra gold shimmer, and other varieties. Vastex showed an assortment of screen-printing equipment and talked about each stage of production. The training that Vastex offers on site or at its facility in Allentown, PA attracted many attendees. I spent some time at Brother and used the GraffiTee, a digital direct-togarment printer. The Kornit Breeze was another direct-on-garment printer on the show floor. It showed what mid-size production environments can do with Kornit’s ink, RIP software, DTG equipment, and company support. Making products faster seemed to be a common theme at the show. BrownDigital, a division of Brown Manufacturing Group, Inc., was a first timer at the ISS show in Long Beach. This division specializes in accessory equipment for the direct-to-garment industry and had DTG curing systems on hand. Its four types of dryers feature DragonAir Core Technology, which creates convection air and exhausts water vapor. Sizes range from 24-60 in. wide for a variety of production needs. The KIWO I-Jet2 computer-to-screen imaging system was on display. It’s designed to save time for shops of all sizes, from small operations to companies that need to image hundreds of screens per shift. In dye sublimation, Mimaki showed the TS500-1800 printer. It comes with degassing module MDM-20, designed to eliminate bubbles in the ink. Mimaki also highlighted RasterLink6, a newly developed RIP solution. Epson has now entered the dye-sublimation market with the SureColor FSeries printers. Epson says it designed and manufactures every component, from the printhead to the chassis to specially formulated dye-sub inks. Epson’s present target is the market for polyester performance fabric used in athletics. The F-Series come in 44- and 64-in. versions. Epson partnered with Wasatch for the printer’s software RIP. Most of all, the relaxed attire, the informal class discussions, and the products specific to garment printing made this a refreshing trade show to attend. Editor gail.flower@stmediagroup.com 4 screenprinting Gregory Sharpless Editor-in-Chief gregory.sharpless@stmediagroup.com Gail Flower Editor gail.flower@stmediagroup.com Ben P Rosenfield . Managing Editor ben.rosenfield@stmediagroup.com Bill Parsons Art Director Mark Coudray, Tim Greene, Andy MacDougall, Rick Mandel, Thomas Trimingham Columnists Linda Volz Production Coordinator linda.volz@stmediagroup.com Business Development Managers Lou Arneberg – East and Midwest US, Eastern Canada, Europe lou.arneberg@stmediagroup.com Ben Stauss – West and South US, Western Canada, Asia ben.stauss@stmediagroup.com Andy Anderson, Jeff Arbogast, Albert Basse III, Reynold Bookman, Bob Chambers, Don Curtis, Dean DeMarco, Michael Emrich, Craig Furst, David Gintzler, Ryan Moor, Bob Roberts, Jon Weber, Andy Wood Editorial Advisory Board Jerry Swormstedt Chairman of the Board Tedd Swormstedt President Steve Duccilli Senior Vice President of Content steve.duccilli@stmediagroup.com Kari Freudenberger Director of Online Media Customer Service Screen Printing Subscription Services P Box 1060 .O. Skokie, IL 60076 P: 847-763-4938/877-494-0727 F: 847-763-9030 E: SPTG@halldata.com Free Subscription www.screenweb.com/subscribe Renewals/Address Changes www.screenweb.com/renew http://www.screenweb.com http://www.screenweb.com http://www.screenweb.com/subscribe http://www.screenweb.com/renew

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - February/March 2013

Screen Printing - February/march 2013
Contents
Editorial Insights
New Products
Increasing Your Profit
Image Enhancement: Better Files, Cost Savings
Prime Prints
P-O-P Primer
Making the Cut
Shoptalk
Industry Update
Distributor/Dealer Directory
Opportunity Exchange
Advertising Index

Screen Printing - February/March 2013