Screen Printing

 

Screen Printing

is the process Advertees use for decorating your T shirts with your designs. It is one of the oldest methods for decorating textiles, yet still by far the most effective system in terms of speed of production, quality of print, and durability of prints (assuming your screen printer knows what they are doing). There are many benefits to screen print and a wide variety of inks to suit a wide range of needs. Staying up to date with all aspects of screen print is important to Advertees. Developments in inks, separation software, machinery and even the screens themselves is rapid, and we want pass on any improvements as they happen. Below is a brief overview of the process, with links to more detailed information if required.

Artwork

Creating good artwork for screen printing is the first part of the process. All the colours in your design will require a screen, therefore when on a budget it is good practice to create designs which use minimal amount of colours. This will keep screen costs down. However when printing larger quantities these screen costs are soon absorbed, and the amount of colours in your design becomes less of an issue. Although we prefer to create the colour separations in house we do like to have artwork supplied in formats we can use, and of a high enough resolution that it will not require reworking from scratch.

Advice on how to supply graphics for screen printing.

Screens

When artwork is complete we print out separate films for each design colour, ie a 6 colour design will require 6 individual films to create 6 screens. These films are placed between the screen and a light source, the screen is coated with a light sensitive emulsion which sets hard when exposed to light. When the screen has been exposed it is rinsed with water, any emulsion that has not been exposed to the light source (the artwork providing the barrier) washes away, this leaves us a stencil through which ink can pass. Advertees use re-tensionable screens and high tension mesh for better artwork registration and even ink deposits.

Inks

The next part of process requires us to put some ink in our screens, your choice of ink (or better still our choice of ink on your behalf) will make a big difference to the final product. We try and promote the use of water based inks at every opportunity,  but realise our preferred  medium is not always the right ink for the job, Advertees stock and have knowledge of a wide variety of media to suit most fashion requirements. Modern plastisol inks are improving their environmental credentials. They are also very versatile in terms of special effects. Advertees also produce hybrid prints which utilize the best parts of water based and plastisol inks.

Bulk Orders

 

In addition to its superior quality of print, screen printing is an incredibly fast process once all the preparation and set up is complete. The speed at which T shirts are printed allows for very competitive pricing on bulk orders. Advertees has automated screen printing machines in addition to hand printing carousels. Our industrial gas dryer ensures a wash fast print, especially when using water based and discharge inks. Quotes for large print runs will take into account the print area, and inks used shirt type etc. To enable us to quote competitively it is good to supply as much information as possible about the design, and garment requirements.

Bagging Up

The final part of processing any order before despatch is packaging. All orders are ratio packed (sizes/colours in bundles of 10) into plastic bags to ensure your T shirts remain clean and dirt free in transit. It will also ensure your product does not deteriorate over time, if there is a need to store your T shirts. Individual bagging is available on request, this is an additional cost generally 0.15 pence per shirt. On bulk orders quotes for bagging will be dependant on garment type. In an effort to reduce waste, Advertees re-use the boxes from the original

T shirt suppliers

for despatch, and  carry no Advertees own branding.