The most common form of commercial T-shirt decoration is achieved through the process of screen printing. The T-shirt/garment printing industry consists of printers decorating articles for sale as advertising, fashion, and athletic wear.
Introduction
Screen printing is the optimum process for producing high quality prints for commercial garment decoration because of its ability to transfer thick ink deposits and create special effects. In addition, large quantities of prints can be produced rapidly and economically with advanced screen printing presses, and today’s screen printing ink formulations can be used to print on a variety of wearable materials.
Screen Printing Process
In commercial T-shirt and garment printing, images may be printed directly onto a garment or printed onto an intermediate substrate to be heat transferred to a garment at a later time. In most instances, an image will be printed directly onto apparel using plastisol inks (flexible and opaque) or water based inks (which penetrate the fabric).
T-shirts/garments are typically printed on a carousel press with multiple substrate and printing stations. Larger textile printers have automated presses, which operate at higher speeds and provide better consistency from garment to garment.
When multiple colors are printed on top of each other, a flash cure unit may be used to surface cure the under layer inks prior to application of additional colors. Once printed, the garments are sent through a final dryer that cures the plastisol ink at proper temperatures (above 160° C/320° F).
