Impressions - September 2014 - 64

Screen Printing Technique

A four-sided jacket hold-down device,
such as the Workhorse Products' Gripper shown
here, is needed to stretch the jacket ﬂat during
the printing process. Photo courtesy of Workhorse
Products, Phoenix.

doesn't smear, with a 65 durometer squeegee," Taublieb says. "Flood [the screen] and
use a single, medium-speed pass." A ﬂood
stroke is required when printing jacket
inks to pre-load the stencil with ink while
the screen is in the up position.
Screen printing on jackets requires the
use of a two-part jacket ink. Catalyst is
added to the plastisol at a 10% ratio by
volume to allow the ink to adhere to the
surface of the nylon. It's important to note
that when printing on nylon with twopart jacket inks, the ink must be ﬂashed after each color is printed to avoid smearing.
Finer meshes in the 230 range are ideal
for jacket printing. Also, always use an HO
plastisol (high opaque) to allow for good
ink coverage when printing on dark nylon
fabrics. Printing with ﬁner meshes in the
230 range also reduces the amount of time
the jacket needs to be in the conveyor
oven to cure the ﬁnal print.
I asked John Levocz with International
Coatings in Cerritos, Calif., what trends
he sees in nylon printing. "Our two-part
900 series jacket ink has been experiencing growth in the ad specialty market for
printing poly propylene bags and other
heat sensitive materials," he says.
Levocz went on to say that International Coatings manufactures an LC (low
64

Impressions | September 2014

A ﬂash cure unit is needed
to ﬂash after every color printed on
nylon materials to prevent smearing of
the ink. Photo courtesy of Workhorse

cure) plastisol that is great for printing on
heat-sensitive fabrics. "Keeping the heat
under the magic 300˚F mark seems to be
the answer when curing inks on heat-sensitive fabrics," he says.
A standard screen print shop will have
the equipment needed to print on nylon
jackets, however a jacket hold-down device must be acquired to hold the jacket on
all four sides during the printing process. A
ﬂash cure unit is required and although a
forced-air unit is not a requirement, it's a
great feature to have when ﬂashing heatsensitive nylon materials.

THE JACKET PRINTING PROCESS
Load the jacket in the hold-down device and lock down the clamp on all four
sides of the jacket. Flash the jacket for 6-8
seconds before printing to pre-shrink the
material and to remove excess moisture.
Stir the catalyzed ink well before loading into the screens and ﬂood the image
area. Print the ink with a ﬁrm print stroke
using a 65 durometer squeegee.
Flash the print for 6-8 seconds and allow
time for it to cool and repeat the same process for each color.
After the last color is printed, release
the jacket from the jacket clamp and run
through a conveyor textile dryer for the

ﬁnal cure. Always refer to your ink manufacturer's recommended curing instructions.
Learning the process of printing twopart inks on nylon jackets also will open
the door to printing on other items made
of nylon materials including back packs,
raingear, umbrellas and more.
James Ortolani has more than 30 years
experience in the decorated apparel industry,
specializing in hands-on direct screen printing and heat transfer production. He has
worked for main industry suppliers, and currently serves as product development specialist for Transfer Express. For more information
or to comment on this article, email James at
james.ortolani@stahlsdfc.com.

Suggested

Reading

Like this article? Read these
other screen printing articles at
impressionsmag.com:
* "Nylon Know-How"
* "How to Print Dynamite
Graphics on Difﬁcult Fabrics"
* "Decorate It! Screen Printing
on Jackets and Outerwear"

impressionsmag.com

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Impressions - September 2014

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