18
years of workable knowledge in the screen printing and promotional products
industry. A screen printing shop for artists by artists. Every artist has a
niche, mine is preproduction. I have the ability to take ones ideas and
reproduce them on a canvas. A cotton canvas. We have the vision that all
underground and commercial artists need to collaborate with a knowledgeable
company to competently reproduce works as needed. We do not have an artist, we
have several. Ink art represents and works with many artists within the Denver
area. We are proficient in all of the new and fashionable trends - discharge,
water based, foil, CMYK, simulated process. Come down, see, feel and touch our
work and compare it to who your using now. We stand behind our
work.
Denver Ink Art is a block away from Coors Field! Lodo has many
underground artists, and Denver Ink Art Screen Printing wants to partner with
every one on every medium.
Screen Printing
Technique
A screen is made of a piece of porous, finely woven
fabric called mesh stretched over a frame of aluminum or wood. Originally human
hair then silk was woven into screen mesh; currently most mesh is made of
man-made materials such as steel, nylon, and polyester. Mesh is made in
different thicknesses determined by threads per inch. A large blocky print is
best printed through a low mesh count "81 treads per inch", a detailed print
with halftones is best printed through a high mesh count "305 threads per inch".
The screen mesh is coated on both sides with a non-permeable photo sensitive
material "emulsion" to form a stencil, which is a negative of the image to be
printed. That is, the open spaces are where the ink will appear. Once a screen
is coated , the screen must be coated with emulsion and let to dry in the
dark.
There are several ways to create a stencil for screen printing. An
early method was to create it by hand in the desired shape, either by cutting
the design from a non-porous material and attaching it to the bottom of the
screen, or by painting a negative image directly on the screen with a filler
material which became impermeable when it dried. For a more painterly technique,
the artist would choose to paint the image with drawing fluid, wait for the
image to dry, and then coat the entire screen with screen filler. After the
filler had dried, water was used to spray out the screen, and only the areas
that were painted by the drawing fluid would wash away, leaving a stencil around
it. This process enabled the artist to incorporate their hand into the process
to stay true to their drawing.
Today, the original image is created on a
transparent overlay such as acetate, tracing paper, or a clear film positive.
The image may be drawn or painted directly on the overlay, photocopied, or
printed with a ink jet or laser printer, as long as the areas to be inked are
opaque. A black-and-white negative may also be used (projected on to the
screen). However, unlike traditional plate making, these screens are normally
exposed by using film positives. The image to be printed is attached to the
underside of the emulsion coated screen usually by clear tape, and placed under
ultra-violet light in the 350-420 Nanometer spectrum. The UV light passes
through the clear areas and create a polymerization (hardening) of the emulsion.
Referred to as burning. The screen is removed from the light source, and the
film is removed. Using a pressure washer the screen is coated with water. The
emulsion that the light did not hit (the positive black on the film) will wash
away from the screen. The emulsion that was hit by light stays on the screen
leaving a negative stencil of the image on the mesh. The screen is placed to sit
and the emulsion dries and hardens.
The screen is placed and
attached to the screen printing press so that when it is atop the platen (the
surface the tee shirt is placed over and attached to by spray glue) there should
be about a sixteenth of an inch gap. Ink is placed on top of the screen, and a
fill bar (also known as a flood bar) is used to fill the mesh openings with a
layer of ink. The operator begins with the fill bar at the rear of the screen
and behind a reservoir of ink. The operator lifts the screen to prevent contact
with the substrate and then using a slight amount of downward force pulls the
fill bar to the front of the screen. This effectively fills the mesh openings
with ink and moves the ink reservoir to the front of the screen. The operator
then uses a squeegee (rubber blade) to move the mesh down to the substrate and
pushes the squeegee to the rear of the screen. The ink that is in the mesh
opening is pumped or squeezed by capillary action to the substrate in a
controlled and prescribed amount; i.e. the wet ink deposit is equal to the
thickness of the mesh and or stencil. As the squeegee moves toward the rear of
the screen the tension of the mesh pulls the mesh up away from the substrate
(called snap-off) leaving the ink upon the substrate surface.
On a
manual screen printing press the squeegee is used for flooding and printing by
using a pushing stroke to flood and a pulling stroke to print. The thickness of
the ink on the tee shirt is determined by the angle, pressure, and speed of the
squeegee. A lower angle pulled slowly produces a thick layer of ink, and a
higher angle with faster speed produces a lighter layer of ink. There are
multiple types of screen printing presses. The "flat-bed", "cylinder", and
"rotary". Textile items are printed in multi-color designs using a wet on wet or
a flash technique. On dark tee shirts a white ink is printed first. If there is
not white in the design the white under base film is "choked" or made smaller so
the colored inks cover the white and the white ink does not show around the
edges of the graphic. This is done in the graphic program the image was created
in. The white ink is printed and then "flashed" with heat making the ink tacky
but not dry or "cured" then the colored inks are printed on top of the white.
That ensures the colors will be bright and vibrant on a dark surface.
The screen can be re-used after cleaning. However, if the design is no
longer needed, the screen can be "reclaimed" (cleared of all emulsion and
used again). The reclaiming process involves removing the ink from the screen
then spraying on stencil remover to remove all emulsion. Stencil removers come
in the form of liquids, gels, or powders. The powdered types have to be mixed
with water before use and can be considered to belong to the liquid category.
After applying the stencil remover by spray, letting set for a minute, the
emulsion must be washed out using a pressure washer. The screen mesh is then
washed or "de-greased" with a soap based liquid. If there is any impurities
on the mesh the emulsion will not lay on the mesh properly and dry with bubbles
or an uneven surface which will affect the burning of the screen. Most screens
are ready for re-coating at this stage, but sometimes screens will have to
undergo a further step in the reclaiming process called dehazing. This
additional step removes haze or "ghost images" left behind in the screen from
printing the ink through the screen mesh once the emulsion has been
removed. Ghost images tend to faintly outline the open areas of previous
stencils, hence the name. The result of ink residue trapped in the screen mesh,
often in the knuckles of the mesh, points where threads overlap.
While the public thinks of tee shirts and other garments in conjunction
with screen printing and promotional products, the technique is used on tens of
thousands of items. Water bottles, decals, clock and watch faces, balloons and
many more products. The technique has even been adapted for more advanced uses,
such as laying down conductors and resistors in multi-layer circuits using thin,
ceramic layers as the substrate.
Denver
Ink Art Screen Printing
Denver Ink Art Screen Printing,
Embroidery & Promotional Products, located in LoDo Denver, Colorado, one
block form Coors Field, has thousands of products to be customized and
imprinted to your needs. Garments such as Tee Shirts, Jackets, Caps, Hats,
Hoodies, Fleece, Sweats, and Sweat Pants are offered among thousands more
of apparel pieces.
Denver Ink Art Screen Printing, Embroidery &
Promotional Products is your best source for Promotional Products and imprinted
Advertising Specialties. Denver Ink Art Screen Printing has thousands of
Promotional products for your needs, Water bottles, Pens, Pencils, Visors,
Clips, Note pads, Banners, the list is endless. Whether its give-aways,
corporate identity, fund raisers, or anything you need to advertise and market
your company, we can print it.
Denver Ink Art Screen Printing,
Embroidery & Promotional Products will help you make the best choice and
offer the best possible products to pad print, screen print or embroider your
logo on. Denver Ink Art Screen Printing has eighteen workable years
of knowledge and the experience to teach you how you can promote and
brand your business or event and get the best marketing product according
to your specifications.
\'a9Jody Van Gaalen 2009
