Impressions - September 2014 - 63

Screen Printing Technique

talking SHOP

Screen Printing on Nylon Jackets
With the right equipment, printing on non-absorbent outerwear
can be a breeze and bring higher proﬁts.
By James Ortolani, Contributing Writer

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long with the change of the seasons comes the opportunity for
screen printers to cash in on jacket
printing. And, with a few modiﬁcations to
existing equipment, inks and techniques,
this task can be an easy transition. Jacket
printing requires the same basic screen
printing equipment and process as traditional T-shirt printing but with a few
modiﬁcations. It also will require a jacket
hold-down device, a ﬂash cure unit and a
two-part jacket ink.
This article will help identify the steps
necessary to successfully direct print on
non-absorbent fabrics like rain gear, windbreakers and satin nylon jackets.
Creating artwork for jacket printing is
not that much different from designing for
T-shirts. However, I recommend reducing
the amount of colors used in the design to
make it easier during the printing process.
Typically the maximum colors used in a
jacket design is four colors or less. It's also
recommend to trap your artwork to avoid
printing color on top of color. Trapping
artwork does two things: It provides better
ink adhesion to the jacket surface, and it
allows for the press operator to change the
color print order if necessary. Note: Large
block areas of ink should be positioned last
in the print order to avoid contact with
subsequent screens while on the press.
High-tensioned screens are recommended for printing nylon jackets to
achieve better ink control and image registration. Today's retensionable screens are
fast and easy to stretch by using pre-cut
mesh panels that snap into the sidebars of
the screen frames. Pneumatic stretching
tables can be used to expedite the stretching of the screens in seconds.
Most screen printers are good at printing knit shirts that absorb ink but there
can be a slight learning curve when ﬁrst
attempting to print on woven nylon that
doesn't absorb ink. Since the ink sits on the

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Retensionable screens are fast and
easy to stretch by using pre-cut mesh panels
that snap into the sidebars of the screen frames.
Pneumatic stretching tables can be used to expedite
the stretching of the screens in seconds. Here is a
Newman stretching table with 23" x 31" roller frame
with pre-cut mesh panels.

surface of the jacket, the ink will spread if
excess squeegee pressure is applied.
High-tensioned screens in the 25-30
N/cm range are ideal and provide easy offcontact control down to 1⁄16 of an inch or
less. When the squeegee is pulled across
the screen, the mesh snaps off directly behind the squeegee leaving an image with
sharp edge deﬁnition and detail.

SQUEEGEES AND INKS
I notice a lot of screen printers using
the same squeegee to print both T-shirts
and jackets, so I turned to industry expert
Charlie Taublieb of Taublieb Consulting
in Englewood, Colo., to get his opinion on
the subject.
"For printing satin ﬁnish jackets, I
would use a 230 mesh at 30N/cm so it
September 2014 | Impressions

63
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Impressions - September 2014

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