Once the squeegee is pulled across the mesh, off-contact immediately lifts the screen mesh away from the substrate as the squeegee is moved the across the stencil, resulting in a good print. If you have a press with an “off-contact” adjustment, it is a simple matter to set it precisely at the height that you want. Just turn the knob and watch the screen raise or lower. You can “feel” the amount of off-contact by pressing down on the mesh.
Printing on sweats can be very profitable but require different printing techniques. There are a few things to watch out for when printing sweatshirts or sweatpants. First, you will need to use more platen adhesive than usual to hold the garment in place
One of the most popular imprint areas on a shirt is a left chest print. In the industry, a left chest print always refers to “left chest as worn” on a shirt. This means that the imprint will appear on the left side of the shirt when an individual is wearing the shirt.
This REVOLUTIONARY, HIGHLY EFFICIENT, STENCIL – MAKING SYSTEM expedites the process by ELIMINATING the need for:
· a film positive
· emulsion
· capillary film
· exposure time
· drying time
The “home-made” units covered in this chapter range in cost from under $100 (fluorescent tube or halogen bulb unit) to around $300 for a metal-halide unit.
There are many types pf special effects inks and printing methods available. At the American Screen Printing Association website, you will find some articles already written about some of the special effects.
An important aspect of screen printing a T-Shirt properly is getting the print straight on the shirt. A print that is not square and runs up or down hill will surely end up in the rag pile. Once you line up the screen to the image to be printed, you should be ready to print a full run of shirts without the screen moving. Then it is as simple as putting each shirt on the platen in the same place to get a consistent placement of the image.
Unlike printing on white or other light colored t-shirts, printing dark colored t-shirts can present certain challenges. There are certain tips and tricks to printing dark shirts. In this chapter, we try to cover everything you need to know about printing on darks ranging from the PFP (Print-Flash-Print) technique, to the proper mesh counts, to the time saving “coating stroke” technique.
Keeping information on orders is always a good idea. You should have a record system set up to retain all order information such as customer name, address, shipping address and contact information. You should also be recording for future reference, information pertaining to the quantity of the order, specific shirt brand and color you used and the ink color of the order. Having all this available makes it very easy when the customer wants to reorder.
Choosing the right mesh count for a particular print job is extremely important. The most important thing you need to know about mesh count is that the amount of ink deposited on the substrate is determined primarily by the mesh count.
