Images Magazine Digital Edition July 2018

www.images-magazine.com TIPS & TECHNIQUES 28 images JULY 2018 Marshall Atkinson is a leading production and efficiency expert for the decorated apparel industry, and the owner of Atkinson Consulting, LLC. Marshall focuses on operational efficiency, continuous improvement and workflow strategy, business planning, employee motivation, management and sustainability. He is a frequent trade show speaker, article and blog author, and is the host of InkSoft’s The Big Idea podcast. atkinsontshirt.com Checklist Add a pre-written checklist to orders. List what should happen and who is responsible. Have a small blank for your team to initial for each order. • Screens: At least 156 mesh or higher, with tension above 24+ N/cm. • Ink: Low-bleed ink or ink additive for all colours. • Press platens: Not overly hot. • Dryer temp: Adjusted lower to match ink. • Printed shirts: Cool in four stacks on a table with a fan. Do not drop into a box until completely cool to touch. Be smart about the design for the shirt on-press shirt shrinkage, the answer to this challenge comes in two steps. First, make sure the entire platen has adhesive, not just the print area. Apply a thin, even coat to the platen with a foam-roller or a plastic applicator like they use for vehicle wrap applications. Reapply as necessary. Secondly, watch the heat with your on- press flash units. All you need is for the just-printed ink to gel so it doesn’t pick up with the next colour. You do not need to fully cure the ink. To test, flash cure the print and test it with your finger. Does any ink lift up? Yes? Add a little more time. No? That’s great, but can you drop the time a little still? Tri-blend fibrillation The reason why tri-blends have such a huge following is their innate softness. These shirt styles have an instant vintage look and feel like a hug from an old friend. Who wouldn’t want that? Well, anyone who has to print on that fuzzy surface for starters. The problem lies in the cotton fibres that come up through the print and make our work look shoddy. If you are new to decorating on tri- blends, the best thing you can do is to produce a few test prints on various styles with the same image and see which one performs to your liking. You’ll quickly determine that some styles, after printing and washing, have a distinct, faded and almost fuzzy look. Tips to combat tri-blend fibrillation In the print order, place a first- down curable clear base and flash-cure before any colour screens are printed. This will give a good foundation for your print, and lock down the fibres. Use high mesh, with good tension. At least a 230 mesh, but a higher mesh count screen might be better. You don’t want to sacrifice the print hand when you solve the fibrillation challenge. Check your ink deposit to ensure it isn’t too thick. Since the shirt fibrillation problem usually manifests itself after a few trips through the laundry, instead of the clear base screen before the image colours, you might try adding it last. Consider this as putting the force-field on the outside of the print, rather than next to the shirt. This should work just as well. However, this may make the clear ink more noticeable. Tri-blend scorching Another common problem with some tri- blend styles is that they can scorch easily. Again, this obviously is a heat issue. Are you noticing a common refrain here? What causes this is that the air that is between the press platen and the shirt gets super-heated during the flash-cure dwell times. However, what you will find is that where the platen adhesive was applied, the shirt won’t be scorched. For example, if you only applied the platen adhesive around the left chest area, the scorching will be outside of that patch of adhesive. Tips to prevent tri-blend scorching Obviously, pay attention to your flash cure dwell times, and use a designated cool-down station after you have flash cured the ink. As with avoiding shrinkage, make sure the entire platen has a thin, even coat of adhesive and reapply as necessary. Be careful that you don’t apply too much and distort the print removing it from the press platen to place on the dryer belt. You don’t want to solve one problem and then create another. If you do happen to scorch a few shirts, hydrogen peroxide sprayed through a mister bottle onto the problem area, then back through the dryer, can sometimes remove the problem from the shirt. Tri-blend shirt conclusion Tri-blend T-shirts are here to stay and you need to be careful how you screen-print them. This should ideally start with your customer service or sales team: have your customer-facing crew give clear expectations about decorating a tri- blend T-shirt during the sales process. Then, your art department should be able to creatively engineer a print that will work best on this popular blank. Use good tensioned screens with higher than normal mesh. Your screen room sets up the foundation for the success of the print. On press, use just enough squeegee pressure to clear the ink from the screen and onto the surface of the garment. If the shirt is prone to fibrillation, print a clear curable base screen first, flash and then print the image on top. That should lock down the fibres. And, most importantly, repeat after me: Pay attention to the heat.