As the 2010 Winter Games approach, it is time to resurrect this article first published in 2008…

Kathleen salutes our Beijing Olympians and their 18 medals in her official Canadian Olympic Team t-shirt. She also looks forward to great results from our winter Olympians with her official Vancouver 2010 sun visa.

Canadian gear! Canadian pride! Made in China?

We know that others have been objecting publicly about Canadian Olympic apparel being produced abroad, but we want to take up the cause on behalf of our industry specifically.

Canadian pride is important, but so are Canadian jobs, in this case, screen printing jobs. Why can’t we tie the two together? Why can’t the Canadian Olympic Committees show some of the patriotism that they expect the rest of us to show? Why don’t they insist that all Canadian Olympic licensed gear has to be produced in Canada? We have textile manufacturing and textile screen printing industries decimated by an exodus of work to low-wage destinations abroad. It takes a special kind of gall to ask an unemployed Canadian textile worker or a failed screen shop owner to proudly wear a Maple Leaf sewn and printed in China!

Canadians don’t seem to realize that Canadian jobs and Canadian businesses are being destroyed by their greedy clamour for cheap products made by foreign workers in foreign countries. When that greed overshadows even national pride, it has gone too far. 

How about this for a suggestion to deal with out misplaced priorities problem? Before our athletes get a boost from any of the additional tax payers’ money that they want in order to produce more medals and boost national pride, let’s give the tax payers a boost by stopping the flow of Olympic textile and screen printing jobs to offshore locations. Let’s rethink Canadian national pride a bit and let’s keep more of its economic benefits inside Canada.

And don’t bother pointing out that Kathleen is wearing Canadian pride made in China. She’s a dummy. What’s your excuse?

Some ink manufacturers have just woken up to the fact that governments and customers are beginning to focus on eco-friendly screen printing ink. Now they are announcing eco-friendly ink like they have just invented something new. But as with most new developments in textile screen printing inks, Wilflex is still way ahead of the game, just as they were when they were the first to take lead out of plastisol ink 25 years ago. 

Kathleen’s t-shirt is printed with eco-friendly Wilflex ink that has been available for eight years all over the world!

Wilflex Quantum One does not include phthalates or PVC resin, yet it prints and cures like conventional palstisol-based inks. It also delivers the same high-quality performance and PANTONE colours you would expect from other Wilflex colour systems.

Wilflex Oasis is a line of water-based inks that does not include phthalates, PVC or AEPO’s and it meets the Oeko Tex 100 standard. The Oasis line also includes non-formaldehyde discharge inks.

Wilflex Epic ink system provides you with the most advanced non-phthalate ink technology for market conditions and certification standards that require non-phthalate inks. The Epic system is based on Wilflex’s popular MX mixing system that gives you consistent PANTONE colours.

Want to know more about eco-friendly inks? Don’t waste time with immitators and be careful of salespeople who claim to have “organic”, “green” or “enviro” inks without knowing what they are talking about. Don’t be some no-name brand’s guinea pig, call Screenflex toll-free at 1-800-661-7766 or email us at info@screenflex.ca We know a lot, but if you manage to stump us, we always have the full resources of Wilflex’s experts to back us up.

Oh, one more thing…   we have samples.

As we mentioned in an earlier article, Promotional Products Plus of Calgary, are doing great things with Wilflex Oasis discharge inks. Here Kathleen is showing two of their designs. Besides being on the edge graphically, the prints have a really soft hand, something that the current apparel market is demanding.  

The ”Rib Cage” design that she is wearing has been discharged to reveal the natural colour of the garment before it was dyed.  The red and the liquid silver aspects of the design were printed stright down over the top of the Wilflex Oasis Plascharge ink in the first screen after it had been flashed. The images that we have here do not do the silver and red justice; both are bright and vibrant, much more so than the images show.

Rob Riddell says that the Wilflex Oasis Plascharge in the first screen was printed through 156 mesh. The Wilflex red in the second screen was printed through 156 mesh and the Wilflex Liquid Silver was printed through 110 mesh. All were just single hits. The image below will give you a closer look. 

We should add a quick reminder that screens used for discharge printing should be coated with Ulano’s QT Discharge emulsion.

The second shirt, the one that Kathleen is holding, is a soft white print on black. This can be achieved in a number of ways. For printers without gas dryers, we recommend a 50/50 mixture of Wilflex MX White and Wilflex Oasis Plascharge and 6% Wilflex Oasis Discharge Activator added just prior to printing. Rob says that this one was hit twice in a hit/flash/hit sequence through 110 mesh. 

Now all of this can be done without stinking the place out with a rotten egg smell and without dealing with the formaldehyde and heavy metals associated with other discharge systems.  If you want to know more about printing with Wilflex’s Oasis discharge system call Screenflex toll-free at 1-800-661-7766 or email info@screenflex.ca and ask for the very cool “Coloured-hair flyer” that describes the Wiflex Oasis platisol discharge system.

Want to see more of Promotional Products Plus discharge designs? Check out their web site at www.logoitplus.com If for some reason you don’t want to do discharge printing but would like to have some done (particularly large format prints in limited numbers) Rob and Riley would be happy to talk to you. Their contact information is on their web site.  

Now that is production productivity! And it is not just hype, it was timed before witnesses. Click on Kathleen for a bigger image if you would like a closer look. The shirt was printed in the Stretch Devices booth at the Orlando SGIA show.

It was achieved with art, equipment and materials available to everyone interested in producing high quality prints with high productivity. The key elements were artwork by Print This Inc., Newman Roller Frames, Ulano stencils, Wilflex Oasis Discharge ink, Wilflex Quick White, Wilflex GNS colours, and Wilflex High Density Clear. The separations were produced with Wilflex Easy Art separation software.

If you are interested in further details such as the print sequence, squeegee durometers, screen tensions, mesh counts, and other technical elements that produced this amazing print, give Margaret Best a call toll free at 1-800-661-7766. Also, if you need any information on the Newman Roller Frames, Ulano emulsion, Wilflex inks, and Wilflex Easy Art separation software used to produce this and other fine prints, call the same toll-free number.

When you call, make sure to ask about how cool-down units positioned after each flash helped to speed up the production. Screenflex offers the Tekmar Kwik-Kool unit.