Screen Printing

Everywhere around logos, designs and art shows up and comes out of the woodwork using a modernized version of an older technology. Screen printing is a helpful way to expose a company name and/or logo to the public. Screen printing originally started out using silk as a medium but has since moved on to using stretched porous, finely woven nylon or polyester fabrics, with carefully stenciled designs, and delightful creations take form and come to life. From many of Andy Warhol’s famous works to such commonly used items as T-shirts and hats the practice of stretching a fabric and laying out a non-permeable material to cover areas of the fabric to be unaffected by dyes has created influential and marketable works of art. This inexpensive form of advertising creates a wide range of possibilities for a company to establish itself in the market, or for an already established company to gain great recognition.

With a great flexibility and range of uses across different platforms and materials, screen printing has become a widely accepted form of pseudo-media. With uses varying from textiles, ceramics, metal, wood, paper, glass, and plastic, there is not much screen printing cannot accomplish. It remains apparent that screen printing is evident in all walks of life. It is impossible to walk down the street and not see hundreds of screen printed items on a daily basis. Everything from soda bottles, to T-shirts, to coffee cups, and cars are all screen printed. With such a wide array of uses, screen printing also has many different techniques for being accomplished.

The most common for of screen printing is known as photographic emulsion. Simply put, photographic emulsion is a process whereby a photosensitive substance is hardened and subjected to ultraviolet light, using the desired stenciled design, the monochromatic design is transferred onto the vehicle such as the ones listed above (textiles, ceramics, metal, wood, paper, glass, and plastic).The process is completed by rinsing away the excess emulsion that was not hardened by the light in either water, or solvent. In the end, it leaves only the desired screen printed image on the medium. Screen printing has grown into great popularity to brand our everyday household items, and familiarize us with famous commercial brands as well.

Every time we put on a T-shirt or use a coffee mug, we are using a product of screen printing, which has brought artwork and advertising to the masses. Banners, logos, graphics, and art have all been created and replicated countless times as a result of this revised technology. Since the development of screen printing and the evolution away from silk, the technology has improved to include photographic printing processes to create works of art, namely those of Andy Warhol (mentioned above). This technology continues to bring familiar household names into our lives and beautiful works of art into our hearts. Although using a harsh and abrasive chemical process, the end result is one to warm the hearts and minds of past generations and futures generations of innovators.

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Screen Printing

Printing can be defined as a process of producing texts and images, typically with ink and paper by a printing press. Printing is an essential part of any publishing business and is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process. Printing as a technology has come a long way and has improved with time. The advancements have resulted in the development of various types of printing techniques. From the several techniques available, screen-printing is used most extensively.

Screen-printing is also known as silk screening and is a technique that is suitable for relatively flat surfaces. The process involves the use of a fine mesh or screen that is tightly stretched around a rigid frame, wherein the screen masks the areas, which are not to be printed. To create a print, the screen is placed over the item to be printed along with a blob of thick ink. With the help of a squeegee the ink is then pressed through the screen. The ink penetrates the unmasked area and creates the print, whereas the masked area prevents the ink from entering, thus creating the distinctions. The printed item is then passed through a heated tunnel to dry the ink so that the items can be stacked and packaged.

In case of multiple colors, the process is repeated by using different screens. Therefore, a four-color print will require four screens that are placed on a rotary press that allows proper alignment of different color prints and in coordination with each other. The improvement in technologies has resulted in the development of fully automated presses, which require minimum human intervention.

A screen can be masked in many different ways. The simplest method is to apply masking fluid directly to the screen. This process is ideal for two-color graphics, whereas a photosensitive emulsion process is used for multi-colored jobs.

Screen-printing is extensively used for printing on t-shirts, garments, and other fabrics. It is also used on all sorts of substrates, ranging from plastic to metal. Screen-printing is a unique process as it is simple yet achieves intricate and bold details.

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Screen Printing

Commercial screen printing technology involves the production of a multitude of alphabets at a quick pace. Though one may note, even common articles of daily use make use of a printing application in some form or the other. Screen printing is suited for bold and detailed graphic designs. However, small and obscure particulars can also be duplicated. Modern printing technology is a good example of the rapid development in various commonly used devices and equipment in our life and the impact of science in improving efficiency.

Screen printing is a method used primarily for flat or relatively flat surface printing. The procedure involves a fine mesh or screen securely stretched around a stiff frame. Sections that are not to be printed are blocked on the screen. To create a print, the screen is placed on a piece of dry paper or fabric and ink is placed on top of it. A rubber blade is used to spread ink uniformly across the screen. The ink passes through the open spaces in the screen onto the paper or fabric below after which the screen is removed. The screen is usually durable and long lasting and can be re-used after cleaning.

If more than one dye is to be used on the same surface, then the original ink must be allowed to dry before the process is repeated with another screen of the same design and a different color of ink. The framed screen is positioned over the item to be printed along with a dollop of thick ink. In earlier methods, the ink was left to dry for long periods of time. However in modern times the printed article is passed through a heat-tunnel on a conveyor belt. This method guarantees that inks dry quickly, allowing the materials to be stacked or packaged almost immediately.

Properly dried screen print items are long lasting even in unfavorable conditions. If the printing surface involves darker items, usually a supportive base print is required. A light base color, preferably white is used. This method ensures that the successive colors retain their exuberance and are noticeable.

Today, screen printing is much more flexible than the conventional printing techniques. Screen printing inks are being used to print on a range of surface materials, which include fabrics, ceramic objects, metal, timber, paper, glass, and synthetic items. This has resulted in the usage of screen printing in diverse industries, from fashion garments to manufactured goods and labels.

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Screen Printing Business-How To Start A Small Home Business Printing T-Shirts

Have you thought about starting a screen printing business? It costs almost nothing to start a t-shirt printing business at home. I read about one guy who started a screen printing business with almost nothing. He made the frames with used lumber, and used fabric from an old wedding dress for the screens. He printed and sold signs. He also printed magnets (like what you see on car doors advertising a company), shirts, and baseball caps. He actually designed and built his own 4 color screen printing press. I bought the plans for his 4 color screen printing press on eBay. The plans were hard to follow, but I managed to build my own modified version of his press.

At one point I seriously looked at starting my own screen printing business. I ultimately decided that there were other things I would rather do. So I mainly screen print t-shirts for fun. But it wouldn't be that hard, or expensive to get into the screen printing business. It would cost under $100 to buy the stuff to screen print t-shirts. The absolute minimum stuff you would need would be a frame, photo emulsion, a cheap light, ink, a squeegee, masking tape, and t-shirts. For another hundred, you could buy a single shirt screen printing press. Or if you want to build your own press.

And you can upgrade your equipment as your business grows. Screen printing a t-shirt only uses pennies worth of ink for each shirt. You can get blank shirts on sale at Michaels for $3-4 each. Or you can buy them in quantity for less. You can buy box lots of t-shirts on eBay. You can run a screen printing business out of your garage, or the basement of your home. If you run a small shop, you will probably be okay. If you start to get bigger, then you might need to check with your local government on zoning laws. What I have seen many people do is design and print shirts, and then sell them on eBay. If that is what you are interested in doing, look on eBay and find what kind of shirts people are buying. Are they buying dog shirts, cat shirts, karate shirts, etc. Find which shirts are selling. Develop your own original artwork, print a few shirts, and try listing them on eBay. So you might spend a few bucks per shirt, it only costs pennies to print them, and then you might be able to sell them on eBay for $10-$15 on eBay.

Some other screen printing business opportunities would be local rock bands, baseball teams, family reunions, etc. If you know someone who needs t-shirts, offer your services and make a small profit. It is important that you do a good quality job. After you have done some jobs, you will likely get referred business by word of mouth. You can always get some business cards printed up, and post them on bulletin boards in your area advertising custom printed t-shirts.

Rob Jacob has years of screen printing experience. For articles and information about screen printing t-shirts, visit: http://www.screen-printing-t-shirts.com

Printing Screen Printing Graphics Larger Than A Sheet Of Paper

If you are using a computer to produce your screen printing artwork, you may want to print something larger than will fit on a single 8 1/2”x 11” piece of paper. But how do you do it? If you manage to put together the right combination of search terms in Google, you will find there is software out there to do this. The programs will break up your images into page-sized sections, and print them. But I am cheap. I didn't want to pay $20 or more for a program that does nothing more than this. I started playing with some of the programs that I already had.

First I tried my antique version of Adobe Photoshop (version 3.5). I searched for a feature to print my large graphic in sections, but it didn't seem to have one. Maybe a newer version has a feature for it. Or maybe someone sells a plug-in for it. I suppose I could have just manually broken the image up into smaller pieces, and printed them on the transparencies. Next I tried Microsoft Word. I couldn't find a way to get Word to print an image larger than a single page. It seems like they would have some sort of banner mode. But I couldn't find it.

But I did finally find a program that I owned that would do what I wanted. It was an unlikely candidate. Microsoft Excel! Yes, the spreadsheet program!

Simply open Excel. Go to the Insert menu option, and select Picture. It will give you another menu, so select From File. A browse box will pop up, so use this to select the image that you want to print. This will insert your image into a single spreadsheet cell. Right-click on the image, and choose Format Picture. Under the Size tab, you will find the ability to adjust the size of your image. Make sure you have “Lock aspect ratio” checked, or it might distort your image.

Now you can print your image. Excel will automatically print the whole thing, using multiple sheets if needed. You can print whole banners if you want. I have used Excel to print a poster size image that was 5 pages wide, and 6 pages tall. So it was 30 pages in all. I just had to tape them all together.

So for screen printing, you would just print your image onto transparencies, and then tape the transparencies together (using transparent tape) into one contiguous image.

Rob Jacob has years of screen printing experience. For articles and information about screen printing t-shirts, visit: http://www.screen-printing-t-shirts.com

Screen Printing Tips: Helpful Info on Silk Screening White Ink and Screen Print Technique

It seems that one of the most common problems new screen printers run into is printing white ink. I’ve heard a lot of questions like: Why do all my other colors print fine and white is so tough? Why is it that my white ink is so thick? Why can’t I get a smooth white ink? It’s always rough and seems to have texture to it. Is there anything I can do to thin my white ink to make it easier to print? Also comments like: “Our white ink is bad, it comes off after only a couple of washes.” “There’s something wrong with my press, it prints fine when I am printing on white shirts, but when I print on dark shirts the white ink is very blurry.”

Unfortunately, the answers to these quarries usually lie in the printer themselves. No, your white ink isn’t defecting, your press probably works fine, and you shouldn’t need to thin the ink. Yes, you probably need to change some variables and techniques during the printing process. The truth of the mater is, the answer is in the question all along.

So why does the screen printing process work fine for a while and then as soon as you start printing white ink, smash, a road block. The truth is, you may have been doing the wrong things the whole time, it just didn’t show up yet . It’s like swimming, sure you can dog paddle and flounder around the pool all day. However, when it comes to swimming a long distance, without the proper techniques you’ll work twice as hard and get half as far.

Printing on light garments is much easier than printing white on dark garments. On a light garment, not as much ink is required to achieve good coverage. Also many times you’re working with thinner inks. Ink varies in viscosity according to how much pigment it has in it. For instance, a black ink is almost always going to be printed on lighter colors, the pigments needed for the black to show up are considerably less then the pigments needed for a white ink to cover a dark garment. Thus, you’re black ink is much thinner and easier to work with. You can do almost every technique wrong when printing black ink on a white shirt, and there’s still a good chance that your final print will look pretty good. Since the ink is thinner, it passes through the screen mesh much easier, with less force, and clears the screen better. (For those unfamiliar with the term “clearing the screen,” this defines the point when all ink is cleared out of the screen mesh and properly transferred to the shirt.)

So basically when setting up a screen printing job that requires black ink on a white shirt, you can use the wrong screen mesh, have no off contact, and print with the completely wrong squeegee technique and still get an “OK” looking final print. However, if these same wrong techniques are tried when printing white ink, uh oh, game over! The unfortunate thing is, many printers start out this way and teach themselves completely wrong. In fact, this is how I learned. It’s not the end of the world though!

The first thing you’ll have to understand and come to terms with is the fact that white ink is probably going to be the thickest ink you’ll ever use. To achieve a bright white image on a black shirt, the ink has to be opaque which in turn means thicker. Sure you can find thinner white inks, or try to reduce the thicker ones, however you’re defeating the purpose and you’ll end up printing twice as much to try and achieve the same result. On the other hand, if you learn how to print correctly, then printing white is like taking a walk in the park.

Over the past several years, every ink manufacturer in the country has been on the hunt for the “best” white ink on the market. Yes, they’ve come a long way. In fact twenty or thirty years ago white on black looked more like a light tan or gray than white. Now with inks available like Triangle Phoenix White or International Coatings White, you can achieve maximum coverage with minimal passes. Still, white ink has to be loaded with pigment which means it will always have a high viscosity.

So what’s the trick? How can you print white ink like the pros.? The answer usually lies in a few simple changes to your setup and technique. Apply these changes and really, it’s not that hard.

Before we delve into techniques, let’s first discuss a little bit about pre press and setup.

To properly setup a job using white ink you first must understand a little bit on how to select the proper mesh size. Because white is thicker, you want to print through the lowest proper mesh size that applies to that print. If you try and print white through a higher mesh screen which has much smaller holes in it its going to make it much harder to push the ink through the screen. It’s also not going to allow as much ink through the screen as a lower mesh would.

Typically you want to print white through mesh sizes ranging from 110-156. Granted sometimes the image dictates a high mesh count. For instance, since a half tone or fine line drawing cannot hold on a lower mesh screen, you’ll have to use a high mesh frame and apply more passes to achieve a bright white. For the most part however, you’ll want to use the lower meshes so that a larger amount of ink is deposited on the shirt.

The second part of setup is to insure the screen is adjusted properly on the press. You want to be sure that you have a proper off contact of about 1/8-1/16 of an inch. Since white is a little thicker, you may want to go with a slightly higher off contact then normal, perhaps around 1/8 of an inch. Off contact is the height between the screen mesh and the substrate you are printing on.

Proper off contact also allows the ink to be cleared from the screen mesh easily by releasing the mesh upward directly after the print stroke leaving all the ink smoothly on the shirt. One thing that you also want to be sure to apply when printing white ink is an off contact tab. This is a small piece of material (ie. a penny, cardboard, paper, a piece of plastic) that is the height of your off contact. This tab is placed on the end of the screen frame where it hits the top of the neck platen and not the shirt. By using an off contact tab, you insure that your off contact will remain through the entire print stroke.

The tab keeps the end of the screen up although you are pushing down on the mesh during the stroke. Without an off contact tab, you may find that you have a harder time clearing the mesh because the screen wants to stay flat against the shirt with ink stuck in it.

If you don’t have the proper off contact a few problems could arise. If your off contact is too low then you will not be able to clear the screen properly. You should see the screen mesh bounce off the shirt and be able to see the ink and the shirt through a cleared screen mesh. If your ink stays in the screen mesh and the screen mesh sticks to the shirt, when you pull the screen up your ink will look very rough and parts may pull back off the shirt. If you’re having this problem you may need to raise the off contact a little bit. Also, this problem could arise from your actual print stroke which will be discussed later.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re off contact is too high; you’ll have to push down extremely hard on the squeegee in order to get all the ink down onto the shirt. I’ve been out to shops to help customers who literally had almost a half of inch of off contact. If your off contact is too high, not only will it be hard to transfer the ink onto the shirt, but there’s a good chance that your screen won’t come down in the same spot every time. This could cause a blurry image or double images after a flashing. A proper off contact is extremely important for a good looking image and an easy print.

Next let’s take a look at technique. The majority of the technique in the screen printing process involves the print stroke. This includes squeegee angle, pressure, speed and release. That standard tendency of a new printer is to literally smash the ink through the screen by pulling the squeegee across the screen with an extremely low angle.

When using thin inks, this impropertechnique could work because the ink passes through the screen so easily. However, if tried with white, you’ll not only have trouble passing the ink through the screen but also have very blurry images because you’re pulling the screen mesh so hard. Your squeegee should actually be about an 80-85 degree angle facing toward you. You should also focus your pressure over and down on the print and not on pulling the squeegee against the mesh.

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Many new printers stand back from the press, you actually need to stand over the press to focus your pressure down and not back. When your pressure is focused down, then you simply move the squeegee back over the print. With the proper squeegee angle, all of the ink will properly shear through the image and over your screen. In fact you should be able to run your finger over the design after its printed and barely any ink should show up on your finger.

Now let’s talk about the speed of your print. When we instruct printers to use the proper squeegee angle and pressure, the first impulse they have is to move the squeegee about the speed of a turtle. If your speed is too slow you won’t be able to properly release and clear the screen. After a print stoke, many beginners tend to sit back and look at their print, then slowly pull up on the squeegee not allowing the screen mesh to bounce back up leaving ink still stuck in the screen. After a faster stroke, you need to almost give the screen a little pop in order to get the mesh to bounce back up leave a smooth crisp print on your shirt. This is achieved by a simple flick of the wrist, the same flick you would make to insure that you pick up all the ink on your squeegee blade. Only to create this pop and release the screen, the flick must be done a little faster.

Finally, when flashing in between passes, you must wait until the shirt cools down a little until you print again. This is much easier to achieve on a multiple station press because it allows the pallets to cool down. On a single station press you may have to wait a few moments and wave your hand across the pallet to cool it down.

If the ink is too hot from theprevious flash, you may have trouble clearing the screen because the ink will want to stick instead of release the mesh. It could also cause ink to partially cure in the mesh. Since white ink is thicker and you apply more layers of it, you MUST insure a proper final cure.

White ink tends to reflect heat away instead of absorbing it in. This means that the ink and the entire print area must be cured from top to bottom at 320 degrees for about 45 seconds. Obviously the best way to cure white is in a conveyor belt dryer, however if you are using a flash dryer you want to be sure that the whole design gets the same amount of heat.

One of the best ways to insure a proper cure is called the stretch test. Since your white image will be a little thicker, this test is easy to read the results. After your shirt is cured, simply take a small section of your design and stretch it slightly between your fingers. If the design sticks together like plastic and stretches well, then it is cured and you can continue with those curing parameters. However, if the ink cracks or breaks apart, this means the base of the ink is not cured properly and you need to increase yourcuring time for the shirt.

By following these steps and techniques you should find printing white ink a little easier. Granted, because there are so many variables involved in screen printing, you may have to work a little at it and modify slightly. However, after a few times printing the right way, you’ll start seeing better results and have fewer problems.

Ryan Moor founded the Ryonet Corporation, a prominent online Screen Printing supply company. Ryan has dedicated much time to teaching and explaining the screen printing processes. Find more information on silk screen printing and screen printing equipment at Ryonet's website SilkScreeningSupplies.com

Aluminum Vs. Wood Screen Printing Frames: How To Select The Right Screen Printing Mesh Size

The advantage of an aluminum screen printing frame is the durability and longevity it retains. Unlike wood silk screen printing frames when exposing frames to water in a dip tank or washout sink aluminum frames will not warp. This will insure a flat frame through thousands of prints to come. Aluminum frames can also be stretched and re-stretched many times. The mesh and glue are simply removed from the frame using a professional tool that doesn’t damage the aluminum. Once cleaned, the frames can then be re-stretched which will give you the ability to use that frame for years of hard work in your shop.

Aluminum frames are also light weight which makes shipping less expensive and saves you money in the long run. If you're looking to maximize performance in your shop, aluminum frames are a great item to add to your screen printing equipment.

More about screen printing mesh size: Different mesh sizes are used for different applications in the screen printing process. Mesh size is measured by how many threads of mesh there are crossing per square inch. For instance, a 110 mesh screen has 110 threads crossing per square inch. The higher the mesh count, the finer the threads and holes are in the screen. The size of the mesh has a lot to do with how detailed your image is and how thick the ink you are using is. If you have an image with extremely high detail, a lower mesh screen won’t hold the high detail. The fine lines or dots in the image will simply fall through the holes in the mesh not giving you a correct representation of what your image should be. Also if you are using a thinner ink, the ink will also flood through the larger holes and soak onto your shirt or substrate making your image blurry as the ink bleeds. On the other hand, if you are trying to print a thicker ink (such as white) through to high of a mesh screen, barely any ink will print through the mesh. You will notice that different companies have different sizes available. If the mesh count is fairly close, such as the difference between 155 vs. 156, 196 vs. 200, or 81 vs. 86, the difference is so negligible and small that it will not matter in your final results.

Since there are many variables involved in silk screen printing we can’t tell you exactly what mesh sizes are used for what applications. However we can give you a general outline of what sizes to use for certain types of printing. Your basic and most standard mesh sizes are 110 and 156. 110 mesh lays a fairly thick layer of ink down. It’s great for block text letters and larger spot color designs. It’s also a recommended mesh for white flash plates because many times you will only have to make one print impression which speeds up production time. 156 mesh also lays down a little thicker layer of screen printing ink but offers you some higher detail ability in your image due to the finer mesh. Also if you are printing with a little thinner viscosity colors of inks, you may want to use the 156 mesh so not too much ink is passed through your screen. Lower mesh counts like 40-86 are used for shimmer and glitter inks. These inks have particles in them that will not pass through the typical mesh sizes. Therefore you need a lower mesh count with large holes in order for all the particles to pass through properly. Shimmer plastisol inks have finer particles in them so you could probably use an 86 mesh while glitter inks have much larger particles so it would be recommended to use a 40 or 60 mesh screen. 200 and 230 mesh are used for finer detailed images and thinner inks. These mesh sizes can hold larger half tone dots but are not recommended for four color process prints or fine detail half tone printing. Also graphic and solvent based silk screening inks that are much thinner should be used with these mesh sizes. Also if you would like a softer feel to the ink on your shirts you can print through these higher mesh counts which will let less ink through the screen giving you a much softer feel on the shirt. This can get tricky however, many times a duller distressed look is wanted for the artwork but if bright vibrant colors are desired (especially white) you will have a hard time getting the opacity thick enough using these higher meshes. 305 mesh is used for extremely high detail textile printing and fine halftone four color process and simulated process prints. (Learn more about process printing here.) Fine half tone dots need high fine detail mesh in order to hold and expose on. Higher meshes such as 355, 380, and 400 are used mainly for graphic printing with UV inks. UV inks are extremely thin and many times are used for high detail printing on signs, banners, or CD’s. Using a higher mesh allows the automatic printers used in UV printing to regulate the amount of ink passed through the screen.

Exposure Notes: Different mesh sizes hold different amounts of emulsion, due to how big the holes in the mesh are. For instance a 110 mesh screen will hold much more emulsion then a 305 mesh screen. While the difference isn’t extreme, you will have to vary your exposure times slightly for different mesh sizes. A finer mesh screen that holds less emulsion will expose faster then a lower mesh screen that holds more emulsion. However, the difference is small so you may have to only vary as slightly as 5-10% in either direction and depending on mesh size in order to get maximum exposure performance.

Ryan Moor founded the Ryonet Corporation, a prominent online screen printing supply company. Ryan has dedicated much time to teaching and explaining screen printing processes. Find more information on silk screen printing and screen printing equipment. Visit http://www.silkscreeningsupplies.com