T shirts Printing Process: Silk-screen printing is the process of pulling ink through an image burned screen onto t-shirts and other garments. Below we will take you through the steps we use to create custom screen printed apparel.
Designing Art for Silk-screen Printing
It all starts with an idea brought to us by our beginners. The idea is taken to our in house designers who create a computer generated version of that idea, using the t-shirt color(s) the beginners has chosen for their order. Once the design has been completed it is posted to the Art Approval Directory for approval from anyplace.
Produce the Art for Silk-screen Printing
Once the silkscreen printing design is approved it goes to our production artist, who takes the design apart with a process called color separation. Each color of the design resolve has its own silkscreen. Before the production artist can take the design to the screen department they must print each color on a film positive. This is the final step of preparing the art for screen printing.
Prepare the Silk-screen
Screen printing cannot be completed successfully without well constructed screens. The film positives from the production artist go to the screen department, who prepares the silkscreen by coating it with photosensitive emulsion. The color separated positive is emotionally involved to the emulsion coated screens, and taken to be burned for t-shirt printing.
The silkscreen is placed into a unit that exposes it to ultra-violet light. The ultra-violet light burns the design into the screen, removing the emulsion to let ink come through the screen. This is very important to get the best silkscreen printing results.
Screen Printing Your t-Shirt
Silk-screen printing finishes by transferring the ink through the screen onto the t shirt. To begin this process, the press is loaded with the t-shirt printing screens. Ink colors are then poured onto the proper screens.
The screen printer then loads the t shirt making sure that it is even and sitting straight on the silkscreen printing plate. Once it is loaded properly the printer lowers the screen and pulls the ink across it with a rubber screen printing squeegee.
After the Print
The t-shirt is then removed and placed on a belt that runs under a special dryer. These dryer resolves cure the ink at 320°F. At the end of the dryer, Quality Control inspects each item of clothing to guarantee the garment meets our stringent, high quality standards.
T shirt printing is always working with new products, technique and applications to ensure you get the best screen printed products.
Satin Stitch Embroidery
Satin stitch gets its name from its sheen as it catches the light to reproduce a soft, yet bright, color such as satin does. A satin stitch is often used for lettering, 2 inches or smaller in height. This stitch produces a lower stitch add up overall, is used on simple designs and gives a smooth clean satin finish.
This is our standard embroidery stitch. If you would like to see a few examples of our embroidery work, please visit our Custom Embroidery Design Samples page or our Art Approval Directory.
Step-Satin Stitch Embroidery
Step-satin stitch is useful when enlarging lettering or creating a big design that is 3 inches or larger. Step satin is made up of smaller stitches that fill a better area, whereas satin stitches use one stitch to cover an entire area. When used on large designs or letters, this stitch eliminates the possibility of snags or allowing your design to be vulnerable to everyday wear.
Embroidered letters and numbers can be done with either of the on top of applications to produce beautiful custom embroidered apparel.
3D EMBROIDERY
Custom 3D Embroidery Will Add Dimension to Your Design
Custom embroidery has two innovative techniques that will add dimension to any design. These two very different applications have similar effects, but use different methods to achieve them. PrintTshirtUSA is excited to offer layered 3D embroidery and puff 3D embroidery to our customers who are looking to add dimension to their custom embroidery design.
Custom Layered 3D Embroidery
Layered 3D embroidery is achieved by doubling the stitch count on a design. This makes the design thicker, and raises the design up and away from the garments surface. The layered 3-D effect allows you to have greater detail than the Puff, however, very detailed designs work best with standard embroidery stitching.
This technique works best on thinner materials that will be washed regularly, such as oxfords, polos, and sweatshirts. For subtle 3-D effects try our new custom layered 3D embroidery.
Custom Puff 3D Embroidery
Puff 3D embroidery uses a foam underlining to achieve an extreme three dimensional effect. The foam comes in different widths and colors to accommodate an array of products and thread colors. This application also requires the thread count to double, so that the foam will not be exposed through the tread.
Puff 3D embroidery works best with block or large round shaped letters. Artwork for puff embroidery should have rounded corners so that the needle perforates the corners of the design and covers the foam completely and makes your design come alive.
Thick materials that will be washed periodically generally work best with this application, such as hats, bags, and thicker jackets. To really make your business name or logo stand out, use our puff 3D embroidery.
Custom embroidery can be done with either of the above applications, as well as, our standard embroidery applications. PrintTshirtUSA is constantly testing innovative ways to embroider using special effect embroidery. Watch this website for the newest in custom embroidery.