Screen Print

Faults That Occurred During Screen Printing on Textile Fabric

There are two major faults that have been found as most occurred faults in Textile Screen Printing methods. These are – 1. Lighter Prints  2. Darker Prints.

Lighter Print Faults in Textile Screen Printing on Fabric:

a) Lighter shades on Selvedge and gradually deeper towards the other.
b) In the middle of the fabric and darker towards the selvedges.
c) While using large amount of foam.
d) Due to uneven application of Gum.

Darker Screen Printing Faults:

a) May be obtained irregularly throughout the fabric.
b) Throughout the fabric in the direction of weft.
c) If a soft table is used on a hard table surface.
d) If a hard squeeze is used on a soft table surface.
e) Deep stripes along the warp.
f) Very small specs of color on the ground ( Unprinted Portion).
g) Screen may get clogged during working.
h) Over lapping of colors.

Top 7 Textile Printing Companies In The World

The number of Textile Printing Companies has been immensely increased since few years due to the high demands of printed textile products. Peoples want to wear the decorated printing dresses now a days and that’s why printed fabric buyers and sellers are inclining tremendously on to the Textile Printing industry. To accelerate the printing market and to provide high quality textile printing services, a lot of textile printing companies have been established. From these, I have shorten a list and going to tell you about the top 10 textile printing companies that I have listed at top of these.

First2Print: First2Print is one of the biggest Textile Digital Printing company in the world. They are specialized on Fabric printing and supplying digital printed fabric to the manufacturers, textile designers and local dealers. First2Print uses best Printing Machines.

TPC, Chattanooga, TN: They are basically a packaging company but have enough exposure on Textile printing too. They carry out all the pre and post printing task like Order entry, Designing the fabric, pre-pressing, printing and post press operations.
Spoon Flower: SpoonFlower is company who is specialized on Eco-friendly textile printing. This company prints fabric according to the customer demand. That means, whenever a dealer or buyer have definite specification on customizing a fabric with a pre-defined design or a new design they want to print on fabric by Spoon Flow; spoonflower do the rest of the task. This printing company use premium natural fabric to print.
IVO Textiles Ltd, London: This is one of the ancient Digital and normal printing company in the textile world which was established 40 years ago. They do all kind of textile printing and fabric printing as well. Their company is located at west London and due to the transport advantages they are in a high position of textile printing companies.
CraigsPrints, NYC, NY: This is one another established and famous company who provides custom printed design on fabric to the outsource market like apparel manufacturers, home furnishing companies and any private individuals.
Imaterial, ZA: In the sense of Screen Printing they should be the top of list. Rotary & Screen Printing, Digital printing is their main task. They provide their finished product to the fashion garments, home textiles dealer and corporate buyers.
2Digital Textile Printing: This is a textile digital printing company based on Canada. This company is specialized on artworks on fabric and silk carves, artwork prints on canvas etc.
This is all about the best 7 Textile Digital Printing Companies of the world. They are quite reliable and have enough exposure in the textile printing field.

Difference Between Flat Screen & Rotary Screen Printing

Basic Difference of Rotary Screen Printing & Flat Screen Printing:

As most of the screen printing procedures are different; we can discuss about the difference between Flat & Rotary Screen Printing Process: -
1. In Flat Screen Printing Technology the screen is flat and moves up and down. Beside, the Rotary screen is round in size and it rotates.
2. In Flat screen printing the Squeeze is used. In Rotary Screen Printing, just Roller is used.
3. Small width fabric (45-50″) is printed on Flat Screen Printing. On the other side, large width fabric is printed on Rotary screen printing.
4. In flat screen printing pattern, there are only 6 to 8 color is available. But if you use the Rotary Screen printing, then you will be able to use 16 to 24 colors in a pattern.
5. Flat screen printing process gives a lower production rate. And the Rotary Screen printing is comparatively faster than Flat Screen printing and production rate is 3 times higher than that.
6. The initial investment cost for Flat screen printing machine is low, so that it’s less expensive. But, the initial cost of investment in Rotary screen printing is too high; so, it’s expensive.
Though, the Rotary screen printing machine is too much expensive; but in today’s contemporary textile industry uses the expensive one because of it’s productivity and flexibility.

How To Produce Textile Screen Printing Screen?

If you want to process the fabric screen printing in your  textile industry or if you like to know about the screen printing mesh, then you have to know about – “how to produce the screen printing screen.”

There are different ways for screen production. But the most famous textile screen producing method is Photo Chemical Process.
In this post I will tell you the screen production by photo chemical process.

Steps of Producing Textile Screen Printing Screen

1.Firstly take a piece of Screen Fabric or screen printing mesh.
2. Now stretch and attaché the screen fabric with a metal or wood frame strictly.
3. Now take the photochemical polymeric materials and coat these chemicals in the screen fabric.
4. Dry the fabric in order to stable the chemical in the surface of fabric.
5. Now a negative of Screen Design is attached on the surface of the Screen Fabric. Provided that, the printed portion of the fabric would be exposed to the light.
6. Now pressure is to be applied on the screen fabric by using foam.
7. Now expose the screen fabric to the UV (Ultra-Violet) rays for 4 – 5 minutes.
8. Now rinse with the cold water.
The steps mentioned above are the screen printing screen producing methods. It is worth mentioning that, the screen fabric is made of Glass fiber or Nylon fiber.
When you will choose the screen fabric; then there are lots of options for you. But be careful on choosing the screen fabric because every single screen fabric might have different threads per cm. For instance, Terry Towelling is 19 – 34 threads/cm and for synthetic fabrics are 55 – 100 threads per cm.
The open area of Screen fabrics is different in various fabrics. For example, if you choose the outlines, half tones and fine design then the open area of screen fabric would be 41 to 34.  Choosing the design of Small Motif applied the screen fabrics open area to 41 – 34.

Best Print Screen Machine in the world!!

Don’t be confused after seeing the title named print screen printing. I have used it that’s why you have got me on net. Ok let me come to the point. Knowing about screen printing is crucial for the textile printing entrepreneur before starting a printing business. Because the total profit will be counted on the basis of what is your total cost and after selling what you have earned. And ultimately the productivity is hugely dependent on the print screen machine (textile printing machine) without any doubt because of all of the production facts rely on the printing machine.

So let ourselves conscious about print screen machine that are mostly used as professionally in different textile printing mills.
I have asked several technologists about “what is the best screen printing machine?”
In replied, I got a answer “the Legend Screen Print Machine of antech series”. So just let me talk about something about this print screen machine.
By using this screen print machine one can easily print different fabric or garment and household items like head or cap of the baseball, T-shirt, Jackets that are made by nylon, body of the pant, designing the pocket, multipurpose bags, and various products.
This screen print machine will give you smooth running facilities, uninterrupted rotation of platens, and very easy operation system. The antech series of print screen machine has several options on their product so that you can choose any types of machine according to your needs.
Actually the customer printing needs are increasing day by day and they are expecting something new trends. That’s why you may need to change your machine structure or print screen processes. So buy such type of equipments or tools for your total print screen business that would ultimately be profitable.
So I would like to suggest you to go to any technologists for further information about a screen print machine. I am sure, you have already understood something about what type of print screen machine do you need.

Class About Screen Printing of Textile Engineering (Basic Post)

In today’s class I will give you a basic idea about the Textile Screen Printing Classifications, Steps that have to follow and various materials that are required for using Screen Printing technology.

Classification of Textile Screen Printing:

Screen Printing is basically are of two types. One is Flat Screen Printing and another is Rotary Screen Printing.
Flat Screen Printing is classified into three types. These are –

1. Hand Screen Printing.
2. Semi-Auto Screen Printing.
3. Fully Auto Screen Printing.

In flat screen printing the printing process is done in Flat way and in Rotary screen printing; the printing process is done in rotary way where the whole screen is rotated with fabric.

Steps That Are To Followed During Screen Printing:

1. Design Selection:  Printing design is very important fact for screen printing. According to a printing design a screen is arranged and the whole screen printing process is done.
2. Screen Preparation: After selecting a proper design the preparation of screen is being carried out.
3. Print Paste Preparation: Print past is to be carefully prepared to have an better printing result.
4. Printing: The main work (Printing) is done in this step.
5. Drying: After printing we should have to give the printed fabric a little time to be properly dried. Otherwise, print paste can be wiped out or be messed up.
6. Steaming: To fix the printing paste into the fabric, the steaming process is recommended.
7. Washing Off: Eventually the printed fabric should be washed out to remove the unfixed print paste and other dust remained on the fabric surface.

Materials Required for Screen Printing (Especially For Hand Screen Printing):

1. Printing Table: ( 100- 300 M Long × 1 – 1.5 M Width)
2. Screen (s) + Print Paste: 1 – 3 color.
3. Print Head/ Bed on the print table.
4. Back Grey.
5. Fabric to be printed.
6. Squeeze. (S)
7. Drying system under the table.
8. Hand washing tank/ no washing.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Hand Screen Printing In Textile Industry

Though, the hand screen printing is still a popular printing system in our Textile Industry; there are still some advantages and disadvantages of hand screen printing. Here I will give you the basic and most recommended features of the both screen printing procedures.

Advantages of Hand Screen Printing:

There are several advantages of Hand Screen Printing that we must have to know. These are -

• Less Investment Cost: As there is no machine required in hand screen printing and it is possible to print in a shorter space; the total investment in hand screen printing is comparatively lower than other screen printing system.

• No Risk: No heavier instrument or machine tools are used in hand screen printing. So, there is no risk.

• Multi-color Design Can be Printed: In hand screen printing procedures various colors can be used effectively.

• Less Floor Space Is Required: As no heavier and bigger machines and related tools are used, the hand screen printing requires lower space to install.

• Suitable For Small Scale Production: If you want to install a screen printing factory for you local business, you can choose the hand screen printing at the initial stage as it requires lower cost or investment.

Disadvantages of Hand Screen Printing:

Besides the advantages of hand screen printing; we have to know about the disadvantages of Hand Screen Printing too. Because it is needed for developing the process or solving any problems occurred during installation.

• Slow Production Rate: As no machine is used and all of the process are done by manually; the production rate becomes lower than other printing process.

• Small Scale Production: If you want to own a big screen printing factory or if you have some bigger plan in future; the hand screen printing is not for you. Due to some reason this kind of printing process provides you lesser production rate.

• Labor Intensive Process: A labor has to work manually and all of the process of the hand screen printing is done by the hands. So it needs more time to produce a product.

• Fastness Properties Are Average: As all of the process is done manually, the fastness properties of the printed fabric is not well.

• Difficult to maintain even penetration and print paste.

• Skilled Man-Power is required.

8 Factors That Affect The Print Paste Passing Throught The Screen Printing Screen

In the screen printing method some factors is influenced by the amount of print paste that are passing through the Printing screen. So stepwise I am mentioning the factors –

• The mesh (thread/inch) or Raster (thread/cm) of the screen: The more mesh a screen will have, the more print paste will be passed.

• The fraction of open area in the screens: The more open area a screen has, the more print paste will be passed over the screen.

• The hardness or X-section of Squeeze blade: It’s better to has harder screen to pass the print paste smoothly.

• The hardness of the printing table: Hardness of the printing table affects the print paste to pass smoothly.

• The viscosity of the print paste: If the viscosity of the print paste is high, it will pass over the screen comparatively slow.

• The number of squeeze strokes: If the number of Squeeze is more, the printing paste will pass slowly.

• The squeeze angle and pressure: More and pressure enhance the speed of print paste.

• The speed of the squeeze strokes: Higher squeeze stroke’s speed means, higher amount of print paste to pass.

There are some other factors still exist which affects the Print Paste to pass over the printing screen.

Flat bed Screen Printing

Various printing types like direct printing, discharge printing and resist printing and techniques like roller printing and full screen printing are available for the colorist to realize the print idea.

Panel Flat Bed Printing Line

Screen Printing is the most popular style of printing. An example of this would be the Fiber reactive printed Beach towels you so often see in stores during the spring and summer. A screen is cut for each color in the design, the screens are arraigned on a flat bed printing line and the terry fabric is drawn through the bed and stops at each screen to allow that screen to apply its color. You can make any quality towel you want and they screen print. But usually the quality is around 400 GSM and the towel quality is usually pretty poor. The only process that the towel has gone through after weaving is desizing and bleaching.