SCREEN PRINTING

Do you have a favorite t-shirt? You know, the soft cotton one with the soft handed, distressed print on the front? Everyone has one, and there’s a pretty good chance it was printed using water based ink. Customers love the soft feel and clean, smooth look of water based prints.

As a screen printer, every order you get is different. The design possibilities in screen printing are virtually limitless; some customers might not have a good idea of what they want their garment to look like, others can be very particular. A customer may request a specific printing process, fabric, ink type or color. You can meet most of these demands relatively easily. However, reproducing a specific color is often easier said than done.

Is your screen printing shop struggling to meet tight deadlines? Is your manual press keeping you from taking bigger, more complex jobs? If so, it might be time to upgrade to an automatic t-shirt screen printing machine. With a single operator, an automatic press runs at least 3-5 times faster than a manual press, allowing you to tackle larger production runs with more colors. And with automatic presses available with compact footprints, you should be able to find one that fits your existing work space – no need to restructure, no need to move!

So you’ve decided you want to get into the garment printing industry but you’re not sure how to get started. No worries, everyone was a beginner at some point! Let’s put first things first, like deciding which style of customization you want to pursue. When it comes to printing textiles, two of the most common options are screen printing and direct to garment (DTG) printing.

One of the most common questions we hear among beginners in the screen printing world is “what ink should I use?” To find the answer, consider another question: “what are you looking to print?”. It’s not a matter of trying to find the «best» screen printing ink in the industry, but rather finding an ink that will give you the results you need. In order to figure out what ink will best suit your project, it’s important to understand the properties and applications of different screen printing inks.

Tom and his wife Tammy are owners of a small-time screen printing business that makes just under $100,000 a year. Growth has been steady and they’re ready to expand production, but the manual screen printing press they’re using limits the amount of jobs they can take. Upgrading to an automatic press raises concerns about space at their facility, but is it really a problem? Not necessarily! Tom and Tammy have plenty of options that will allow them to fit a new press into their existing space and get on their way to business growth and more profits. It’s a matter of clearing the clutter, doing the math and purchasing with a plan.

Just as you can only print as fast as your press can operate, you can only cure as fast as your dryer can operate. While cost is important to any screen printing facility, there are a number of considerations that are vital to choosing the right conveyor dryer for your production needs. Just like your clothes dryer at home, conveyor dryers come in two types: gas and electric. Which is right for you? Let’s find out!