Impressions - October 2009 - (Page 38)

HANDS ON >> SCREEN PRINTING >> HANDS ON TECH TIPS HANDS ON HANDS ON For Screen Printers Only By PRINTING SCREENShannon Wilder, Contributing Writer HANDS ON >> T-Formation Invents a Green Playbook TECH TIPS HANDS ON A Florida contract house incorporates common sense green practices that also make economic sense. How green can you be if you are a topvolume screen printer with some 150 employees ﬁlling orders for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to big-time PPDs and nonproﬁts alike? Pretty gosh-darn green — not only because it's the right thing to do, but green practices save signiﬁcant money, says Marshall Atkinson, vice president of operations at T-Formation, Tallahassee, Fla. Founded in 1987 by current President Alan Gentry and three private partners, T-Formation has grown from a small, college-town printer to a nationally known, go-to shop for hot market jobs such as the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, NCAA championships, Super Bowls and the World Series. Even in the midst of our current recession, T-Formation is still running two, and sometimes three, print shifts. Top-line sales for 2009 are in line with 2008 results, and that includes a record-setting month — April — during which T-Formation logged 1 million impressions. How can an operation of this scale adapt processes to adopt a green philosophy? Atkinson, who joined T-Formation in 1993 as an art director, says eco-consciousness is making itself felt not only with regard to the products and equipment the company uses on a daily basis, but even in its most mundane business practices. One major move has been joining the Sustainable Green Partnership (SGP), a collaborative effort among several print industry organizations, both textile and offset, including the SGIA, to designate sustainable green printing facilities nationwide. TFormation is in pre-certiﬁcation. “There are a lot of certiﬁcation programs out there,” Atkinson says. “One of the reasons I liked SGP is because it This photo shows T-Formation’s impressive production ﬂoor, packed with nine automatic M&R presses and four dryers. The room built in the middle of the shop (upper right in the photo) is a production management ofﬁce. That also is where T-Formation has set up its direct-to-garment printer and heat press equipment. Atkinson says the Kiwo I-Jet computer-to-screen device has really improved efﬁciency. Artists now separate art ﬁles directly to the server. “We don’t print any ﬁlm or use vellum for our separations,” he says. “This eliminates the need for the entire vacuum table step in exposing screens. Also, we’ve eliminated the need to ﬁle bundles of ﬁlm for each job into envelopes. Everything is digital. This has really helped us save on direct costs for ﬁlm, and indirect costs such as labor in the art and screen room.”Impressions >> October 2009 The direct-to-garment printer saves money and resources when used for short runs since it requires no screens and very little setup. Finished prints unloaded from the machine are placed on the heat press to dry the ink. Total time to print and heat press one shirt is about a minute. T-Formation has used this equipment to print more than 30,000 shirts to date. impressionsmag.com http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - October 2009

Impressions - October 2009
Contents
First Impressions
FYI
Product Gallery
Green Shop Tour
Wovens: The Corporate Workhorse
Design & Digitizing
Production
For Screen Printers Only
Online Directory
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index
On Design

Impressions - October 2009