Impressions - April 2011 - (Page 62)

HANDS ON >> SCREEN PRINTING >> HANDS ON HANDS ON For Screen Printers Only SCREEN PRINTING HANDS ON Printing the yellow color last made the upright bass “pop” and gave the instrument some depth and contrast. on the ﬂy. This style of printing is not as feasible with an automatic screen printing press, where print-and-ﬂash sequences are preset. Automatic presses are the backbone of our industry for production but — depending on the order size — there are some designs that are better suited to be printed on a manual press. Considering the special care needed to print them, some special-effects inks like shimmer, puff and high-density inks are good candidates to be printed on the manual press. Glitter is another good example of an ink that many shops print manually since multiple squeegee passes may be required as the ink’s ﬂow characteristics and glitter load change. Obviously, you can print all these ink types on an automatic, but the manual press is a great tool for those out-of-the-ordinary jobs. Finally, here are some off-contact and screen mesh considerations. Garments are screen printed with the screens set 1⁄16 or less off-contact from the surface of the garment. The downward pressure from the force of the squeegee allows the screen to touch the garment only during the print stroke sequence and then the screen “snaps off” the surface of the garment right behind the squeegee stroke. Increasing this off-contact distance (between the garment and the screen) increases the ink deposit, and reducing the off-contact distance reduces the amount of ink that is printed onto the surface of the garment. Controlling your ink deposit with your off-contact setting is the key to reducing the ink pickup on the backs of screens. Our industry has come a long way in the past decade by moving to higher mesh counts on multicolor jobs to help control ink deposits and to ensure a soft-hand feel to the ﬁnished print. Finding the right balance between all of the factors listed above will help you streamline your production ﬂow and yield brighter, quality images moving forward. James Ortolani has more than 25 years of experience in the decorated apparel industry, specializing in hands-on direct screen printing and heat transfer production. He has worked for various industry suppliers and currently serves as national sales manager for Hix Corp., Pittsburg, Kan. For more information or to comment on this article, email James at jortolani@hixcorp.com. begin to diminish inTIPS TECH brightness due to the ink pickup value. So to reduce this problem, HANDS ON it may be necessary to add a second ﬂash station somewhere in the middle of the print run to help maintain color brightness. Color order shouldn’t be the only consideration when setting up the press for a production run. Factors such as controlling downward squeegee pressure also play a major role in achieving the brightest print on dark garments. Excessive squeegee pressure can drive the ink through the garment. This exposes the garment’s surface ﬁbers that protrude through the ink deposit, making the ink appear washed out. This problem is called ﬁbrillation. By using high-tensioned screens and backing off on the squeegee pressure, the ink is printed onto the surface of the garment, yielding the best ink coverage and opacity. If ink residue can be seen on the shirt board after a garment is printed and unloaded from the press, then too much squeegee pressure is being used. Ease up on the pressure — the goal is to print onto the surface of the garment, not to drive ink all the way through to the shirt board. >> TECH TIPS HANDS ON DON’T FORGET YOUR MANUAL Challenging designs and some specialeffects inks may be better suited to print on a manual screen printing press instead of an automatic due to the versatility it provides. Manual printing allows you to make many on-press adjustments as you print, whereas the automatic press operates within more rigid conﬁnes. Using a manual press, the operator can print a color twice (or not), ﬂash whenever necessary or change the color order 62 Impressions >> April/May 2011 impressionsmag.com http://www.Impressionsmag.com http://www.Impressionsmag.com/news http://www.Impressionsmag.com/business http://www.Impressionsmag.com/screenprinting http://www.Impressionsmag.com/embroidery http://www.Impressionsmag.com/digitaldecorating http://www.Impressionsmag.com/events http://www.Impressionsmag.com/newsletter http://www.Impressionsmag.com/newsletter http://www.Impressionsmag.com/productguide http://www.Impressionsmag.com/catalogcentral http://www.Impressionsdirectory.com http://www.Impressionsmag.com/infoaction http://www.T-shirtForums.com http://www.Impressionsmag.com/pubs http://www.Impressionsmag.com/university http://www.ISSshows.com http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - April 2011

Impressions - April 2011
Contents
First Impressions
From the Show Director
FYI
Product Gallery
In the Team Spirit
Top Sellers
Decorated Apparel: The Next Generation
Adjusting Your Business to the ‘New Normal’
Design & Digitizing
Graphics & Design
For Screen Printers Only
Online Directory
How to Achieve Quality Digital Prints on Dark Shirts
How to Sublimate on Caps
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index

Impressions - April 2011