Impressions - August 2014 - 65

This close-up photo
illustrates how the 45-line elliptical
dots at 61-degree angles look at
close range.

a sample of Ulano's new Orange
screen emulsion that worked great for exposing even the smallest dots in the 5%
tone areas of the design.
After degreasing and drying the new
screens, I used a one-on-one screen coating technique, which means I applied one
coat of emulsion on the contact side of the
screen and one coat on the squeegee side
using a sharp scoop coater. Note that there
are two different edge proﬁles on opposing sides of most scoop coaters; one side is
dull for coating coarse mesh and the other
side is sharp for coating ﬁner meshes.
We used a 1,200-watt metal-halide
exposure unit to expose the screens and
we had to reduce the unit's preset time
from four minutes (for exposing 60-mesh
screens) to 1.5 minutes. By doing so, we
nailed our exposure on the ﬁrst screen.
We knew we had the correct exposure
time by inspecting the grey scale bar at
the top of each positive to see that all the
dots in the 5% tonal range, up to 100%,
were washed out properly (Figure B).
This is an excellent way to ensure the full
tonal range of halftones in the design were
washed out and open.

STEP 4: COLOR ORDER
Prior to setting up a simulated process
design, it's critical to inspect the press to
ensure all shirt boards are level and the
micros are "zeroed out," or centered, prior
to registering the job. If the shirt boards
impressionsmag.com

are not totally level, the halftone detail in
some areas of the design will be lost due
to the screen not making sufﬁcient contact
with the substrate. Since ﬂeece is a thicker
substrate than T-shirt material, it's critical
to slightly raise the screen off-contact adjustment to account for this difference.
Great Dane Graphics prints the color
order directly on the ﬁlms, so I didn't have
to think extensively about color order. It's
detailed in the next step of the process.

are several pointers that will make the task
a little easier.
1. Cover the shirt boards with pallet mask.
This material looks like a giant roll of
masking tape and each shirt board needs
to be covered to allow for easy cleanup after printing on ﬂeece. The lint from inside
the ﬂeece garment will build up quickly
on the shirt board due to the spray adhesive used to hold the garment in place.
After the job is ﬁnished, you can pull off

STEP 5: THE PRINTING PROCESS
The white underbase was printed ﬁrst
with a 156-mesh and ﬂashed for six seconds
(Figure C). Next, the black ink was printed.
Printing this color on a navy garment may
seem redundant, but it is necessary to give
the image depth. Also, it is especially needed if you decide to print this design on a
variety of different-colored garments.
Red PMS 199 was the third color printed (Figure D) and, although there's not a
lot of red in the design, it adds a realistic
quality. Blue PMS 299 was printed fourth,
giving the design the full effect of being
under water. Gold PMS 103 was the ﬁfth
color printed, giving the illusion of the sun
shining through the water on the turtle
shell. Highlight white was printed last to
make the design pop off the shirt.

FLEECE PRINTING TIPS
Printing on ﬂeece is not that much different than printing on T-shirts, but there

Figure A. Here, 20" x 24" OD static aluminum
frames stretched to 20 N/cn were used to print
the sea turtle. A 156-mesh was used for the
white underbase and 230-mesh for the colors.
Notice the amount of detail in the white underbase print.
August 2014 | Impressions

65
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Impressions - August 2014

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