Silkscreen
Silkscreening is one of the most common ways to decorate teeshirts today. The silk screen process has a long history that begins with the ancient art of stenciling used by the Egyptians and Greeks as early as 2500 B.C. The process more commonly known today was patented in 1907 in Manchester England and a few years later a multicolor process was developed in San Francisco.
The process of transferring the image onto a screen has changed over the years from tedious drawn out artwork, that was then cut out with a very sharp razor to the more modern version today where the art is created digitally, then printed on special paper and then the image is burned into the screen using a exposure table, the exposure light is used to "burn" the image into your screen. After the image has been burnt into the screen a washing process follow and then drying time prior to printing.
After the screen is ready it will be set up on a printing press. There are both a manual and automated silkscreen printing presses. We operate a manual screen printing process. The screens are set up on the press then a test print of every design is done prior to production.
After the image has been printed on to the garment or textile the item is passed through an infrared dryer that will cure the ink. The most common temperature to cure the ink is 320 degrees. The majority of our printing is done with Plastisol ink. It is the ink more commonly used in screen printing. Unlike traditional ink it will not "cure" or "dry" on its own. Therefore if you do not cure the ink in the dryer, it will continue to be transferred until it is cured. In a screen print shop nothing is worse than ink getting transferred, we must always stop and try to find the source so that it can be cleaned with special chemicals. We also use water based, acrylic and nylon inks when printing on special textiles.
Prior to production, all new jobs will receive an email or printed version of the artwork, to be reviewed for spelling, design size, imprint location, color verification and approval.
In addition to spot color printing, we offer sublimation and a four color process.
Screen printing is a great way to express your company logo, slogan or idea in a larger format than embroidery. The cost of screen printing will vary depending on the quantity of items being screened, the number of colors in your design and the number of locations to be printed.
In addition to screen printing shirts for business, we also work with schools, churches, organizations and individuals for special occasions and for larger family events. We can help you with your idea or design or you can utilize our full time graphic arts department to create a unique design based on an idea or concept. Please call us and we will be happy to work with you to make your idea or concept come to life.