Screen Printing - December 2019/January 2020 - 32

SHOP TALK

A TIME TO REFLECT
The good, the bad, and the ugly of Printing United.
ANDY MACDOUGALL, ASDPT

rinting United dodged a real Texas Tornado a few days
prior to the inaugural event, hosted an estimated 30,000
visitors (according to SGIA), and came through as advertised.
Right after closing, another tornado hit, this time inside the
show. The carpet came up and the teardown crew descended
en masse, ripping up a show floor that just finished hosting
three days of meetings, greetings, demos, dinners, digital
overload, optical illusions, logos 'n' lectures, long walks,
questions, answers, more questions, some damn fine printing,
a free massage chair booth one over from ours, lots of old
friends, and a few new ones.
Dallas is done, we converged. Time for the equipment and
people to diverge. The show hall was filled with shouting workers and fork lifts re-enacting WWII tank battles in the aisles. The
place looked like some kind of print shop nightmare with piles
of discarded product on every corner, half-destroyed exhibits, and printer parts strewn across once tidy booths. I swear
I heard the opening notes to the theme from Sergio Leone's
classic spaghetti western "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"
as Clint Eastwood walked down the aisle, crumpled posters
scattering like tumbleweeds at his feet. Turned out it was an
electrician with a toolbelt and a cowboy hat.

THE GOOD
Friends and contacts new and old. For many of us, the annual
SGIA tradeshow is the one time per year we get to see people
in person, and PU did not disappoint.
Academy inductees. Newest member Mark Gervais had
the best line at the ASDPT dinner in answer to a question
from the Student Print Ambassadors who wanted to know
how Academy members got started in the biz and where
they have ended up. He started printing circuit boards after
high school way back in the '80s for a little start-up called
Apple. Now he manages print operations at Ningbo Shenzhou
Knitting, one of the largest print facilities in the world. Other
inductees this year are Beppe Quaglia, whose Virus inks are
helping drive the resurgence of water-based textile printing
worldwide, and Brian Hoag, a teacher who runs one of the
most successful high school printing programs in the US.
Women in print. From the front office to the production
floor to the boardroom, women are finding success in a growing,
changing industry. My editor Adrienne Palmer led a sold-out
breakfast event, moderated a panel, and hosted a reception at
the ST Media Group booth, all recognizing successful females
in the industry. The influx is a welcome change in what was
traditionally a male-dominated vocation. My own experience
teaching and consulting, and our visit by the young print ambas32

SCREENPRINTING

sadors, show new entrants into the world of print are overwhelmingly female. It brings to mind a lyric from a Rude Boys
song I used to play, written by Bobby Heron: "Women are taking
over the world and I want to be in there." True, with a ska beat.
We had some offset people visit the booth. You know
convergence is working when someone looking at an optically controlled, servo-driven screen press used to produce
high precision components for smart phones and consumer
electronics asks where the T-shirt goes.
My boothies. I only see these guys once a year, but it has
been the same team for a while. It's a bit like summer camp, and
it makes me regret the short time we spend together. I'm forever
in awe of the technical teams at the booth who can manifest
a working print shop from a jumble of equipment in crates,
troubleshoot and correct power issues and other problems in
a day, then tear it all down and send it packing three days later.
It takes me two weeks to fix a small part on a press at home.

THE BAD
My printing includes screen. As the floor space increases, the
screen printing component of the show decreases. With the new
name and the focus on all-print and all-digital, suppliers and
printers who work in the three areas of screen printing - textile, graphic, and industrial/functional - are going to seriously
question their attendance or investment in a show that does
not deliver screen printers (read customers) like it used to. The
suppliers of consumables don't bother anymore; they know their
bread gets buttered at the ISS shows or IDTechEx.
We screen printers never did fit neatly into the definitions
of "commercial printing." Maybe because when we start screen
printing, we create whole new industry sectors. Outdoor
advertising. P-O-P. Specialty advertising. The T-shirt industry.
Printed electronics and the ensuing digital revolution that has
taken over the world. That's why this tradeshow was originally
started. You can call it mature technology. Call it analog. Call it
legacy. Call it specialty. But don't call us on your smartphone
unless you're ready to say screen printing did this.
We lost a great one this year. Joe Clarke, an ASDPT member
and the guy who wrote Control without Confusion, which
helped take screen printers out of the dark ages, passed away
recently. M&R named their new training center in his honor.
We'll miss you buddy.

THE UGLY
Did you just skip to here? Joke's on you, dear reader. There is
no ugly. It's the holiday season and soon to be a new year, and
you are all beautiful. May your squeegees stay sharp and your
prints remain flawless. Enjoy and treasure your time with
friends and family.
Andy MacDougall is a screen printing trainer and consultant based on
Vancouver Island in Canada and a member of the Academy of Screen
& Digital Printing Technology. If you have production problems you'd
like to see him address in "Shop Talk," email your comments and
questions to andy@squeegeeville.com.

Screen Printing - December 2019/January 2020

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