|
This is the first of a series of articles by Dave Dennings that we undertook to bring you on a weekly basis. We are not going to repeat Dave’s impressive credentials each time but we recommend that if you do not know Dave, you review our introductory blog here: http://www.insidescreenprinting.com/dave-dennings/ The Dennings article that we are bringing . . . → Read More: Dave Denning on pinholes. We have been fortunate to obtain permission from Dave Dennings to publish some of the numerous techinical articles that he has written over the years on everything relating to screens from preparation, through coating, to reclaim. Dave is currently based in Seabrook, Texas where he is the Product/Technical Manager at Kiwo. We at Screenflex developed a healthy respect for Dave’s ability, knowledge, experience and prefessionalism . . . → Read More: Dave Dennings. As most screen printers know (and have probably experienced) it is something that is more certain to migrate than even a Canada goose; it is the dye in Polyester. It is often referred to as ‘bleeding’, but whatever you choose to call it, the result is the same; a discoloured print. And, as most printers know, the best solution on . . . → Read More: It is not a Canada Goose, but it will almost always migrate. What is it? An orange from Brooklyn, New York? Certainly! It is not the first creative concept to come out of Ulano in recent years - as far as we know they are still the only manufacturer that delivers their emulsion and chemicals in red containers instead of the industry standard containers, boring black or wish-washy white. Have you ever wondered why, in a creative and colourful industry . . . → Read More: An orange from Brooklyn, New York! As we enter the busy season, here is an item that is often overlooked but which, if it fails, can cause you a severe headache just when you need it least of all. We are referring to the lamp in your exposure unit, particularly if it is one of those metal-halide lamps available only from the . . . → Read More: Don’t overlook your exposure unit lamp. Now that the warmer summer weather seems to have arrived in Canada at last, it is soon going to be hot, hot, hot in textile screen shops all over the country. And what do some shops do to cool things down a bit? They open a door or two or a window or two to get . . . → Read More: Hot in the shop? Watch those cooling drafts! Film for producing film positives on laser printers comes in various thicknesses, various degrees of translucency and various prices. For instance, Screenflex carries Kimoto’s range of 3 choices of laser film: Kimodesk Regular laser film is a slightly opaque film and the “thinnest” of the three choices at .003 mm thick. Last week we had a familiar inquiry concerning suitable emulsions for an exposure unit with a weak light source. Most of these inquiries come from start-ups who do not yet have the luxury of top-of-the-line equipment. In fact, quite often the equipment in question is “home-made” and the light source is weak. This inquiry concerned the fact . . . → Read More: Emulsion for weak light sources, a FAQ. Ink remover is not a hand cleaner! That includes ink washes and on-press cleaners. We don’t care how “safe” some manufacturers claim their ink removers are or whether they are soy-based or solvent-based, it is not smart to use them for cleaning human skin. We recently had an inquiry from a printer who wanted to replace the . . . → Read More: Ink remover is not a hand cleaner! This is the third week of suggestions for matching ink with garments in the Trimark catalogue “GEAR UP”. We move to page 19 today (not shown here) where the jackets shown are described as 100% Nylon with water resistant coating and a water resistant finish. In short, a screen printer’s nightmare. If you are asked to print on treated . . . → Read More: Matching ink types with fabric types (Part 3) This is the second week of suggestions for matching ink with the garments in the Trimark catalogue “GEAR UP”. We move on to page 8 today where the garments are 100% dyed Polyester pique knit with wicking. As we have pointed out so many times before, direct printing on dyed Polyester requires dye migration control. It is . . . → Read More: Matching ink types with fabric types (Part 2). You have probably received “GEAR UP” the Team & Sport 2011 Catalog from Trimark and may be asked to print on some of the different garment types that they offer. By the way, if you don’t receive Trimark catalogs, we suggest that you call and ask to be on their mailing list. Over the next few weeks we . . . → Read More: Matching ink types with fabric types.
Image: “Japanese Lucky Koi” available at ioffer.com Incorporating foil into screen printed designs has become very popular, particularly as a fashionable special effect. It is achieved by simply heat pressing foil onto plastisol ink. When foiling first became popular it was quite easily achieved if you were covering the whole plastisol ink area of the design . . . → Read More: If you are going to foil around, consider using Foil Resist Addiditive. So what do you need to know about inkjet film to make sure that you put it into the printer the right way? Sound like a stupid question to you? You’ll be surprised how often we have been told by first-time users that the “stupid film doesn’t work!” because they have put it in the wrong . . . → Read More: Inkjet film. Which side up?
Some time ago, Simon Clifford, president of Tekmar Technical Marketing of Santa Barbara, told a story about aerosol adhesive residue on the floor around a press in a textile print shop that he was visiting. It was so bad that the shop’s resident Golden Lab lay down to rest under the press and then could not get up because . . . → Read More: Want a cost-saving “greener” alternative? Consider your pallet adhesives. The best advice concerning pin-holes? Prevent them from happening, but if they do (as they will from time-to-time) then fix them before the screens get to the press. If they make it to the press, they suddenly become a real nuisance and a time waster. It seems absurd to be press down because of something as . . . → Read More: Pin holes… tiny but deadly. Another job for Ghostbusters. It starts with “ghosting” or “hazing” in your screens and then it can start doing funny things in your prints. We are referring to the feint images left in the mesh on a screen after it has been reclaimed. When these “ghost” images are not removed before the screen is re-used, we have . . . → Read More: Ghosts in your screens can become ghosts in your prints. Sooner or later most printers experience trouble with “ghost” images appearing on the back of dyed or dark garments. This happens most frequently when the print is a large white one printed with a low-bleed or bleed-resistant white ink. The immediate assumption is that the print has somehow penetrated all the way through the garment to the . . . → Read More: Need Ghostbusters? It is an interesting coincidence that the above illustration, which is really a graph of atrial fibrillation (a medical problem), is also a kind of microscopic depiction of textile fibrillation (a screen printing problem). Our topic is of course textile fibrillation, but we know of screen printers that have nearly had the medical type of fibrillation because of the . . . → Read More: Fibrillation, annoying but not necessarily fatal. About six years ago a customer stood at our front counter and amazed us with this folding trick. Even if you have seen it before, we think that it is worth seeing again. It is clever but we are not convinced that it is actually quicker than the traditional way of folding a t-shirt. So, if you are actually . . . → Read More: Revisiting an old trick. The bleeding (dye migration) issue in polyester and poly/cotton blends has always been a problem and a long time ago ink manufacturers developed specially formulated white inks to deal with it. For instance, Wilflex’s PolyWhite has been respected for many years all over the globe as a reliable performer in “killing” dye migration problems very effectively. But . . . → Read More: The white ink on the dyed polyester is not staying white? Over the years we have come across some weird and wonderful dryer problems. We were once called by a customer to deal with an “ink curing problem.” It was one of those miserable -30 Celcius days with a nasty wind blowing, but we made the trip anyway. One of the dryers was curing properly but the other was not. We were shown . . . → Read More: Canadian winters and dryer issues. Most standard plastisol inks require a cure temp of 320 degrees Fahrenheit. But that doesn’t mean that every print automatically cures if it has reached 320 degrees. Thicker and multiple-layer prints need to be exposed to 320 degrees a little longer to allow the entire ink deposit to reach that temperature. If the dwell time is . . . → Read More: Pizzas and prints.
Margaret Best knows her re-tensionable frames as well as anyone in the industry. Over 20 years of experience with them in both manual and automatic shops, large shops and small shops, textile shops and graphics shops, means that you can trust that she knows what she is talking about. We are offering copies of a detailed explanation that she recently prepared for . . . → Read More: Converting to re-tensionable frames – why and how… Accelerated aging tests can give you an idea of how your transfer prints will release from the transfer paper up to a year after sitting on the shelf. Why bother? Well, along with using the best transfer ink and transfer paper available to give you a quality edge over the competition, this test can provide further assurance you . . . → Read More: Test the life of your transfer prints. As we all know, the ultimate test of proper curing of a plastisol ink print happens when the end user eventually throws it into the washing machine. And the fact is that in real life no matter how many washing labels are sewn into a t-shirt or how many washing instructions are printed on neat little tags and attached to the t-shirt or . . . → Read More: If it all comes out in the wash… It is too easy to keep recycling screens without stopping to check their tension before putting them back into production. It is also too tempting to use an under-tensioned screen because of the cost and hassle of having it re-stretched and glued.These are not good things because screen tension directly influences printing results. So what do we . . . → Read More: Keeping an eye on screen tension. Just a quick assurance for those who have been asking about the impact of freezing on plastisol ink – there isn’t any. We know that because we once conducted an experiment by freezing plastisol for a week before allowing it to thaw and return to room temperature. Once back at room temperature it printed as well as the control . . . → Read More: Freezing does not harm plastisol ink. You probably don’t need reminding by this photograph recently taken at Lake Louise in the Rockies, what time of the year it is again in Canada. But let us remind you that it is now when you have to be careful to not allow emulsion (or any other water-based products) to freeze. Freezing does not take long in the cold temperatures that we have been . . . → Read More: Don’t let emulsion freeze! You want to add foil to a print, but only part of it. And you want the convenience of doing the whole print in plastisol. You’ve seen great plastisol prints that incorporate foil in part without having to use water based ink for the non-foiled parts. You want to do them too. But how? You can do it the slow frustrating . . . → Read More: Go ahead, foil around. |
||
|
Copyright © 2012 A blog from Screenflex Inks Canada Ltd. - All Rights Reserved |
||
Comments are closed 