Silkscreening

1
Silkscreening

• Printing on T-Shirts

2
Getting Prepared

• Make sure that the printing area is clean and
  that you have all the materials you will need. It
  is also very important to wear an apron to ensure
  the protection of your clothing.

• For printing on shirts, we use Textile Ink. All
  these inks can be found on the textile ink shelf
  (shown right) and in the cupboard directly above
  it. (In small tins.)

3
Placing Hydroamber on Screen

• Make sure your paper stencil, hydroamber, or
  chromatech is properly placed on the screen.
• 1. MAKE SURE that the square bar of the metal
  frame is located underneath your up-right
  picture. Otherwise, the stencil will be placed
  upside down. This will prevent you from being
  able to print on the shirt because the neck of
  the shirt will not be able to fit around the
  wooden platten.(If unsure ask teacher)

4
Mounting the Screen

• To get a proper print, make sure the flat end of
  the frame of your screen is flush with the metal
  clamping bar (on left).

• The hydroamber image should be straight and
  level with the sides of the platten (you can
  check this with the T-bar if you wish). Your
  image should also be placed on your screen very
  similar to that which is shown here.

5
Blocking Out the Screen

• Use clear tape to block out all the areas of your
  silkscreen where you do not want any ink to go
  through onto your shirt, and make sure you tape
  right to the edges. If your image itself needs to
  be touched up or a part to be blocked out, refer
  to your teacher about how to use the blockout
  paste
• When using the tape to block out your screen,
  start from the bottom, then do the sides, and
  then work your way up to the top of the screen.
  This will ensure a better removal of the tape
  after you are finished printing.

6
Turning on the Johansson Arm

• Before printing begins, you should turn on the
  Johansson Arm to its highest setting this will
  allow you to cure your shirts after printing. It
  should take about ten minutes to fully heat up.

7
Test Printing 1

• To make a test print, you must get a piece of
  pellon from the teacher. We use this instead of
  scrap paper because it is a piece of fabric, and
  therefore will show better results.
• Place a generous amount of textile ink above your
  image on your screen. Using the appropriate sized
  squeegee (no bigger than needed,) flood your
  screen with Ink. This is done by pulling the ink
  over your image without applying pressure
  (below).
• After the screen is flooded put the squeegee at
  an 85 degree angle and apply pressure as you pull
  the squeegee over the flooded ink. This should be
  done only once and fairly quickly to avoid
  flooding/running of the printed image.

8
Test Printing 2

• After printing, place the squeegee at the top of
  your screen and rest in against the metal frame
  (above.)
• The printed image should have clean, crisp lines
  and evenly distributed ink throughout. If the
  lines are not crisp and look flooded, then too
  much ink was pushed through the screen. If there
  are parts of the image where the ink isnt evenly
  distributed, then you most likely didnt have
  enough ink on your screen before you started or
  didnt apply enough pressure while printing.
  These qualities about your print will tell you
  what to change for when you actually print on
  your shirt.

9
Test Printing 3

• Leave the pellon on the 6 and four colour printer
  and DO NOT MOVE IT FROM ITS SPOT.
• Twist the table around so that your printed
  fabric is near the Johansson Arm.
• Pull the hot Johansson Arm over the image for
  about twelve seconds. If ten seconds are up and
  the image is still not dry, cure it again for a
  few seconds at a time until it is done.
• DO NOT leave your curing fabric unattended. It is
  a fire hazard, and over curing your image could
  leave burn marks on your fabric a little bit of
  smoke means ink is curing.

10
Preparation for Shirt Printing

• On an unoccupied platten, lightly spray (1-2 sec)
  the Mist Flash Spray Adhesive. This will ensure
  that your shirt stays put while you are printing
• It would also be a good idea to make sure there
  is enough textile Ink to print your project.

11
Setting Up Your Shirt

• Pull the open end of your shirt over the open end
  of the wooden platten. You should feel your shirt
  attaching itself to the wooden panel.
• Tug at the bottom end of the shirt to the proper
  place on the platten.

12
Setting Up Your Shirt 2

• To further straighten your shirt you can also tug
  at it from the neck.. Make sure that the sleeves
  are an equal distance away from the edge of the
  platten.
• Your shirt should be flat and smooth after it is
  in place.
• The top of your image (if printing on front)
  should be about a palms width from the hem on
  the neck of the shirt. If you are printing
  something small on the back, you may choose to
  place the image a little higher.
• Make sure shirt is tucked in otherwise the shirt
  could get ruined.

13
Printing on Shirt

• Once your shirt is in place, follow the same
  procedure that you used to make your test print.
  Take into consideration any changes to pressure
  or ink quantity that might improve your final
  image.
• After you have finished printing DO NOT move the
  shirt from its spot.

14
Curing Shirt

• Swing the 6 and 4 colour printer so that your
  shirt is near the Johansson arm.
• Pull the arm over your shirt and cure for 10-12
  seconds.

15
Printing on a Black Shirt

• If you print on a dark shirt using a light
  coloured ink, your image may not be 100 filled
  it could look blotchy.
• To fix this problem, cure your shirt after youve
  printed.
• Now that your shirt is cured, you have the option
  of putting on another layer of ink. Just follow
  the printing procedures to apply another layer
• This is why it is SO IMPORTANT to NOT move your
  screen or shirt from its spot until you are
  completely finished, because you will not be able
  to register the image in the same spot that you
  had it before.

16
Final Product
17
Clean Up

• After you are finished printing, make sure you
  follow proper cleaning procedures.
• This includes cleaning your tools and screen with
  opex, reclaiming your screen, and cleaning up
  your entire work area.
• Make sure that you scrape any extra textile ink
  off your screen before you start cleaning it and
  put it back into its proper container so that it
  can be used by someone else.
• It is essential to get your cleanup checked by
  your teacher otherwise, your project wont
  receive a cleaning mark and your overall project
  mark will lower.