Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink blocking stencil. The passing of ink through a mesh stretched on a wooden or aluminum frame, and to which a stencil has been applied. This could be done easily by a squeegee, which moved across the screen stencil forcing the ink past the threads of the mesh in the open areas. As a next step the printed item should be cured properly. The origins of this traditional industry based on ancient China and first appeared during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE). First, they stretched the simple human hair across a wooden frame to form the screen. Herein they attached a stencil made from leaves stuck together into different shapes, which could be called as the first application of screen printing ever. Further Japan and other Asian countries copied and even advanced this craft in the following years. Japanese used woven silk to make the mesh and lacquers to make stencils. Screen-printing was introduced to Western Europe from Asia sometime in the late 1700s and finally was first patented by Samuel Simon around Manchester in 1907. In a long development process from using hair to mesh, screen printing has come a long way and become a huge industry today. Although the basics remain the same, the applications much improved and varied by the help of innovation.

There is only some basic equipment that will be required. First, have a table, mesh and frame. As stretching the mesh onto frame by the help of a contact adhesive you will have the area for design. Then you need a computer, graphic software and printer to create your design and get a print-out. Now let’s assume you have created your design and printed onto a transparent paper. Another important material here is the photosensitive material, on which the design will be created. Apply your emulsion by a scoop coater onto the screen and let it dry for a while and expose by UV light to have the design. Now you have the design on screen. Then you need a squeegee and definitely some ink. The squeegee made by rubber would help you to apply the ink onto screen and create your design on t-shirt. The ink can be simply a plastisol or water based. The substrate is the surface, on which the design would be printed. In t-shirt printing, it is simply a cotton or cotton/polyester blend fabric. After print, you need cure your t-shirt for a while. You can simply use a hair dryer or professional conveying dryer.

Images in vector format such as files created in CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator would be acceptable. High-resolution images are required to have more proper images. Most images found on the internet would not be look good when enlarged and printed.

Plastisol can best be described as a “user-friendly” ink because it is very easy to manage. Plastisol inks are not water-soluble. Because the ink contains PVC in a plasticizing emulsion, the ink will not dry if left in the screen for extended periods of time. No need of washing after printing, thus printers using plastisol inks can do so without a nearby source of running water. Plastisol inks are recommended for printing on colored fabric. On lighter fabric, plastisol is extremely opaque and can retain a bright image for many years. Plastisols can be printed wet-on-wet, which allows for increased production speeds.

Ink must be removed and the screen cleaned with to prevent drying and clogging. Water-based ink is also much more aggressive than plastisol towards the emulsion that is used to create the screen stencil. Even when the proper emulsion is used, screen life tends to be much less with water-based printing than it is for plastisol printing.

Dye migration is a reaction between the dye of fabric and the ink printed onto t-shirt It changes the colors of the printed inks. The reason of such a reaction is that some fabrics contain a proportion of dye not sufficiently fixed to the fibers, which can leach into the plastisol ink without the need of heat. That is called as dye migration. Dye migration can occur even within a few hours or a number of weeks following the printing. Usually 6-8 weeks will be long enough to feel safe. Try to work with %100 cotton type fabric rather than polyester ones, and choose anti-dye bleed inks to prevent this trouble. However the best thing is to complete all required tests before the start of production in your laboratories.

A printer can use both water-based and solvent-based adhesive. Two forms of solvent based products exist now in the market. First one is liquid form applied simply by a brush onto the table or pallet. Another type is sprayable form applied directly by spraying the adhesive onto the table or pallet. Here liquid solvent-based adhesive has cost advantage over sprays, but sprays are much more practical and provide high speed when printing by machine.

Flash curing is a curing method in a design, where one or more colors to be dried prior to the subsequent color being printed. The benefits of flash curing are improved resistance, improved opacity, brighter colors and versality. However this method needs more energy and limits the printer as reducing the printhead capacity of the machine.

Discharge ink is a water-based product deactivating the dyes used on natural fabrics. The ink should be mixed with an activator before print. The end print has a very soft handle just like the color of natural cotton. Discharge can be used to print colors on dark garments that in the past would have required an additional layer of white ink in order to achieve proper opacity of top colors.

Copyright Aeon-feteks.com  All Rights Reserved.
 Designed & Hosted  by Crescendo InfoTech Services Pvt. Ltd