Impressions - May 2016 - 33

INNOVATION: SCREEN PRINTING
The i-Image ST computer-to-screen
(CTS) imaging system from M&R
quickly generates opaque images on
emulsion-coated screens.
Photo courtesy of
M&R Companies.

Pearl SE from Freehand Graphics, are readily available.
Shop-Management Programs: If you
are not using one of the shop-management
programs currently available within our industry, you simply are throwing money down
the drain. The power provided by programs
such as Shopworks, Price-it, Shopvox and
others constitutes one of the best returns on
investment you can make in the decorated
apparel industry. Explore the outright purchase along with monthly service subscrip-

tions to determine which program best fits
your business.

Pre- & Post-Press

not, we are in the commodity
business and don't have total control over the
amount for which we sell our products and
services. Another inescapable fact is that we
are more screen makers than screen printers.
This means most shops spend more time cycling screens than printing. So we have to
reduce costs through efficiency. Check out

LIKE IT OR

these options to get more done in less time.
Panel Mesh: Many printers have embraced
Newman Roller Frame technology, only to
find that consistently stretching bulk mesh
is a difficult craft to master. Enter Shur-Loc
into the equation about eight years ago and
almost instantly, even entry-level employees could produce consistent, high-tension
screens. Shur-Loc mesh panels allow business
owners to improve productivity by investing
a few more dollars in a quality tool and save
huge amounts of staff time and money, while
getting the full value of their investment in
retensionable frames.
Coating systems: Another example of
the craft of screen printing is the art of coating liquid emulsion on our primary tool: the
screen. Many a shop owner has been held
hostage by the screen room guys who mastered the perceived voodoo of coating a quality
screen. Reality or not, only the largest of
textile shops had automatic coaters and the
mid-sized shops suffered each time a new
staff member learned how to coat.
The larger, multi-thousand-dollar machines still have their place. But just recently,
single-screen, fully automatic coaters from
suppliers such as M&R have entered the market at a more affordable price. Vastex Intl.
and Lawson Screen & Digital Products Inc.

Hybrid Decoration Emerges
Since the advent of direct-to-garment (DTG) printing,
the hybridization of traditional screen printing and
the flexibility and high detail of digital printing has
been the "Holy Grail" many decorators have pursued.
I first saw a DTG unit mounted onto a screen-printing
press at a Federation of European Screen Printers
Associations (FESPA) event about 10 years ago, but I
never saw it in action.
Recently, suppliers like Kornit and MHM have successfully
demonstrated the marriage of these two technologies at
Kornit and MHM have successfully demonstrated the marriage of screen and
trade shows, where the T-shirt-friendly white plastisol
DTG printing on one machine. Photo courtesy of SPSI.
or discharge base plate was screen printed, followed up
by amazing digital prints.
The thinking outside the screen here was coupling a common white base plate with variable data
overprints for an infinite variety of designs - as long as they married with the base plate.
Industry scuttlebutt indicates that other equipment suppliers may be refining their own thinking
of these outside-the-screen marriages of these unique technologies and the next couple of years will
definitely see new presentations of these production techniques.
MAY 2016

P.33

Impressions - May 2016

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