CMYK T Shirt Print-Screen Printing one rupee
Screen printing CMYK on white T shirts can produce results equal to that of any DTG printer, so at what point does it become impractical to create screens and put it on a digital printer? The print featured here was printed @ 85LPI using water based inks. We really should have timed the process to enable us to make comparisons, but unfortunately we forgot, timing jobs from start to finish is a very good practice to get into on multi colour set ups. A very rough estimate would be a couple of hours to produce screens, ten minute press set up, 30 minute press clean up and an hourly production rate of around 400 pieces.
Critical to making this process a competitive price on smaller print runs (I think 100+ T-shirts is where we can start to compete with DTG) is getting your separations and screen making process precise and repeatable, it is almost impossible to tell if you have a good print until you have run off the first T-shirt, if it has poor colour or unacceptable moire, you will be spending 30 minutes cleaning up your screens and squeegees before having to repeat the whole process again. (not having to clean up four sets of squeegees and flood bars is the best reason I can think of for converting to digital)
Accurate pre registration and a level press also make for much faster set up times. Once the screens are in place and you are happy with the result production is 10 x the speed of any DTG printer (if anyone wants to correct me on this wild guess feel free)
We recommend good quality T-shirts when printing at 85LPI, and the same is true for DTG printing. We find American apparel give excellent results, we were also very impressed with the bamboo/cotton mix T shirts we tried. Water based inks give a totally imperceptible hand and I think they also have some production benefits over plastisol for CMYK work. There are also environmental benefits. Grafco have formulated a water based binder especially for transparent process which we used here.
Looks like the print results are pretty promising, certainly look great from here.
Do you think CMYK will hold up on designs where colour muddiness might become more apparent (which a dirty rupee might get away with)? Like a print of somebody’s face?
Not that I would encourage un-altered photographic stag-party-esque designs, but you know people love them.
.-= Roy Nottage´s last blog ..Dr. Sketchy’s Falmouth – Opening Night =-.
Roy
It is true of CMYK that colour range can be limited and other problems such as colour gain on press make this a less used method for printing clean graphics. A face would possibly be better off being produced using a simulated process separation, with 2 or three flesh coloured inks. However! we are optimistic about being able to use the true process method (CMYK) on a more regular basis. The simple reason being Newman frames are bringing all of the variables which contribute to this problem under control. I don’t think we would be looking at true process printing as seriously as we are without the introduction of Newman frames. We will more than likely run a clean graphic in the very near future where you will be able to judge for yourself.
Hi,
what brand of inks are you using for water-based CMYK? do you add a retarder? do you add water? what screen mesh are you using and what type of emulsion? what seperations software do you use?
thanks so much.
Hi Nigel, for this job we used Grafcos transparant process base. No retarders required. The emulsion was by KIWO it has amazing bridging properties and resistant to all waterbased inks and discharge, but unfortunately is very difficult to remove from screens when reclaiming. We use screen print separator for CMYK seps. works straight from the actions pallette, more often than not requires no tweaking. Hope this is helpful.
Leave a comment!
Discharge Printing »
Discharge printing textiles and T-shirts
Discharge screen printing is one water based solution for light prints on dark clothing or textiles. It ticks the environmental printing boxes, but it is not without it’s limitations. Firstly we would not use this …
Organic »
New organic products for 2011
A big change for Advertees in 2011, New website is very near completion with more emphasis than ever on T shirt printing, and all inclusive deals. Lots of new products have become available this year, …
screen printing »
Making way for new auto.
The arrival of our new 8 colour automatic is getting closer, but preparation for the machines delivery is nigh on impossible with our current workload.
The new machine will bring much needed added capacity, and make …
Speciality inks »
Soft feel T shirt prints and foil
When screen printing Mixed Martial Arts T-shirts soft prints are nearly always a requirement. Screen printed foil T-shirts are currently a common request.
So we are now offering foils using a phthalate free adhesive, when used …
t shirt printing »
Screen Printing of Water based inks
May has been a very busy month for us, this blog has only seen one post at the beginning of this month, as printing T shirts has been required from waking to sleeping. Our new …
True process or CMYK »
Mr Chuffiewuffie full colour organic T shirt prints
Some projects are simply a pleasure to work on, and Mr Chuffiewuffie and friends was certainly one of those jobs Advertees enjoy. These illustrations by Rob Wills seem to spread a little bit of happiness …
Using Index printing »
Index Separation Method for Screen Printing
There are several ways of achieving this, including transfer printing and direct to garment (DTG) printing. The most commonly used techniques for screen printing however, are index and simulated process. The following is an insight into index separations.
We have taken this photo of a handsome rooster and opened it in Adobe Photoshop.
water-based »
Port Eliot 2010 T shirt.
This weekend Port Eliot Festival plays host to a huge variety of creative talent, and as usual there seems to be something of interest for everyone.
Unfortunately for Advertees a consequence of this event is that …
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck requires Flash Player 9 or better.
Most Commented