SCREEN PRINTING TECHNIQUES

For screen printers, team apparel can generate big business. From local school sports teams to rec leagues to local colleges and universities, there’s plenty of business to be had. Contracting with a team can result in repeat business, year after year, and it brings more than just jerseys: Think  warm-up gear, hats, team jackets and fan apparel. So if your screen printing shop isn’t already churning out team apparel, it’s something you should be looking into.

Tri-blend shirts have become a major force in the fashion industry since their introduction a decade ago. In the custom apparel industry, tri-blend fabrics have become a customer favorite. But these blended garments present their unique blend of decorating challenges. To be able to profit from the popularity of tri-blend garments, screen printers have to know how best to print on them.

Would you like to decrease profit loss in your screen printing shop? Who wouldn’t! While there are limits on what you can do to reduce costs, one area you do have control over is quality control. In specific, you can save money and cut waste by reducing misprints.

Have you ever felt a soft, velvet-like screen print and wondered how the image was created? Flock printing, or flocking, creates a unique, soft texture on garments, cardstock and even on car interiors.

One of the most often overlooked details in screen printing is mesh tension. While brand new screens might print great, over time, your mesh tension will wear down. Poorly tensioned screens can have a major impact on print quality, even if it’s hard to notice that the mesh has become loose or saggy.

There are a lot of variables that go into exposing a screen for screen printing. The opacity of your film positive, your emulsion, the type of exposure unit you’re using and even the age of your exposure unit all will affect the amount of time you need to expose your screens and the success of your stencil.

Before you can create high quality prints, you have to create high quality stencils. However, this is often easier said than done. There are many, many variables that go into creating the right stencil for the job, and some of these factors are easy to overlook. First, you need to right emulsion, then you need to apply it correctly.

Color separations are part of the daily grind in any screen printing shop. If you’re finding that your manual separations are taking up too much of your time, or if you’re ready to graduate to more intricate prints that require more complicated separations, it might be time to invest in color separation software for your shop.

Nearly all printers begin with simple, color-blocked prints, laying down one to three colors at a time. While there’s certainly plenty of money to be made, and plenty of designs to be made, by printing spot colors, many screen printers look to advance their skills and try new techniques.

Designing artwork for screen printing is not always a straightforward job. In order to create a great-looking print, you need art that’s up to the task. Making an effort to use vector images whenever possible can help keep you avoid some headaches throughout the screen printing process.

Every winter — when the moisture in the air drops outside and furnaces further dry the indoor air — static electricity abounds. Unfortunately for printers, print shops create the perfect environment for the generation of static electricity.

Loading shirts onto the screen printing press the right way — that is, with the shirt straight and properly positioned for the print — can be a challenge, especially for novice screen printers. Screen printers have to master the skill of loading shirts the right way. Your press-loading technique impacts how quickly you can print, as well as the amount of discarded prints you’ll have due to crooked or off-center prints.