| The Screen Printing Process... |
| Most people have never seen the screen printing process from start to finish. It seems like some people think that we just push a button on the computer and the shirts start magically printing out. In reality it is a complex process, with hundreds of variable that will effect the outcome of the finished product. In order to help you get a better understanding of the process we put together this step by step walkthrough of a recent project. |
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Step 1. Graphic Design
We develop your t-shirt design using various computer applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as well as traditional means such as watercolor or pen & ink. |
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Step 2. Film Positives
Once the design is approved, the artwork is broken down into the various ink colors all of which are printed black & white onto transparent films. |
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Step 3. Screen Making
Screen are simple frames stretched like an artists canvas with an extremely fine mesh. The mesh is coated with a light sensitive emulsion and stored in our darkroom. This emulsion is water soluble until it is exposed to UV light. The film positives are placed on the screens then hit with a intense blast of UV light in our exposure unit. |
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Step 4. Screen Preparation
Once the screens are exposed they are washed out with water, this removes the emulsion in the areas where the film positive was placed. This creates a stencil for the ink to flow through. The screens are then dried with compressed air and they are ready to print. A screen is made for each color in the design. |
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Step 5. Press Setup & Printing
The screen are now loaded into our automatic press and aligned by hand so that each color will be in registration. Next we load the screens with ink and make final adjustments to the press. This job is being printed with our 9 color automatic press. The press uses air pistons to move a rubber squeegee across the surface of the inked screen. This forces the ink through the washed out areas and onto the shirt. Once setup this press can print up to 400 shirts per hour. Click here to see a video of the press in action. |
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Step 6. Heat Curing
After the shirts are printed they are loaded onto our conveyor gas dryer. The shirts travel through the heat tunnel which brings the ink temperature up to 325˚
When they reach the end of the conveyor belt they are fully cured and ready to wear. |
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Step 7. Packing
As the shirts come out of the dryer, they are counted by dozens, stacked, folded & boxed. They are now ready to be shipped or picked up by the customer. |
