What Is Screen Printing?

Screen printing uses a design on a screen to transfer paint onto the intended material. It can be a very time-consuming, expensive business; however it results in high quality, durable craftsmanship. There are certain materials that take to screen printing better, however if you are employing a professional screen printer this should be taken into account, and will therefore not affect your finished product.

The Pre-printing Process

Screen printing is how a design is transferred onto fabric or material such as vinyl or wood. In a printing store, screen printing usually commences with the design being printed onto film. The details and designs are the scrutinized, with care being taken to make sure no mistakes make it past the drawing board. This is typically done in a dark room, with the film placed on a table that’s lit up from underneath. The contrast allows for details to be picked up on more easily

The films are then painted with a photosensitive emulsion, dried out and attached to a vacuum table where they can be washed out and given another inspection. If anything goes wrong at this stage then it is transferred onto the intended object permanently, so checks are thorough.

Printing

The film can then be set up. Each color of every design needs its own screen and frame (or block), and then these are squeegee onto the fabric. A squeegee is a tool used to scrape, and in this case it forces the ink through holes in the mesh of the screen onto the fabric. The paint may be flash-dried in between each layer so as to make sure that it’s durable, and that it won’t be affected by the next color.

It’s more cost and time-effective to print a large number of items at the same time, as this means machinery can be employed as opposed to an individual. For example one t-shirt may be printed by one man in a day that same man could print fifty the next day provided they all utilize the same design.

Who Offers Screen Printing Services?

Screen printing services are offered by Gold Coast Shirt Printing companies, as it’s the best way to transfer a design onto a fabric such as cotton. This service is relatively costly for individual t-shirts as it is very time-consuming; however when ordering multiple t-shirts with the same design the price drops considerably as they can be printed at the same time.

There are a number of screen printing stores in Gold Coast, and you may want to consider not only price, accessibility and quality of craftsmanship, but also the level or communication between you and the t-shirt printer. This is crucial as if you are not sure about your design, the printer can provide you with their interpretation of what you want and or redraw it to suit your needs better. You might also want to stay informed if they downsize or scale up your design to fit better on to a t-shirt.

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Screen Printing Gold Coast uses a design on a screen to transfer paint onto the intended material. It can be a very time-consuming, expensive business; however it results in high quality, durable craftsmanship.