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Step
1
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| Design
Creation - The first thing that we need before
we can screen print is a design. This design can begin as a sketch or can
be the combination of various clip art pictures and text. Actually we usually
produce a number of different designs that we present to out customers.
After the customer has picked a design he or she likes it then needs to
be color separated so that we can create a screen for each color in the
design. |
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Step
2
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| Film
Production - Once we have suitable artwork
we then create a film positive. Currently we use two methods for creating
these positives. One is by taking a picture of the artwork with a camera
which produces a positive which looks like a transparency used with overhead
projectors. The other method is to print the design right out of the printer
onto a special paper called vellum. Once we have our film positives we
can then create our screens. |
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Step
3
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| Screen
Creation - Screen creation actually begins
long before we even have our film positives ready. The first thing that
we do is take a screen which has a very fine mesh fabric attached and apply
a special light sensitive material called emulsion. The screen is then
places in a dark cabinet so that the emulsion can dry. Once the emulsion
is dry we can then finish the screen creation process. We take our positive
and place it on the screen and put the screen in a special light exposing
unit. When exposed to the light the emulsion that is not covered by the
black areas of the positive become hard. Once the screen has been exposed
for the proper amount of time it is removed from the light unit and is
then washed so that the soft emulsion can be removed exposing the mesh
holes. We then let the screen dry and we are ready to set the screen up
on the press. |
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Step
4
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| Press
Set-up - Once we have good quality screens
containing the image of our customers designs we are then ready to set
them up on our press. If the design involves multiple colors we set each
screen at one of the stations and register each one so that each color
of the design lines up properly. Once we have all of our screens registered
we place ink on each screen and run a test print on a test square. If the
test print is satisfactory we are ready to run the job. |
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Step
5
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| Printing
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If our artwork, screens, and press set-up is good the
printing is the easy part. Each garment is placed on one of the stations
of the rotary press and each color of the design is applied. After all
of the colors are applied the garment is removed and places on a conveyor
dryer so that the ink can be cured. Once cured, the garments are boxed
and are ready for delivery. |
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