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Textile printing wear it with pride
So the UK was going to be a service based economy with banking and insurance leading the way to future prosperity. Our vibrant economy riding on a wave of surging house prices was going to carry the nation forward. Small fortunes lent to people who would never be able to repay the debt. Millions in bonuses being made by sharp-witted dealers.
Who needs manufacturing? We can shove it all to lands far away where people work for one meal a day and a roof over their heads. Better still, have them sleep under their workbenches for six hours before their next 18-hour shift.
Is this not all about the Emperors new clothes? It is worse than that, it is obscene. To add insult to injury world governments have been talking for some years about a new ISO Standard 26000 Social Responsibility, designed as an all encompassing standard including human rights, health and safety, environmental standards: in fact every aspect of how, industry, government, labour, consumers, nongovernmental organisations (in addition to geographical and gender-based balance) behave. So far it is a three hundred and forty seven thousand word document that will not actually be law, just a recommendation. However, to quote:
"To increase comparability of SR (Social Responsibility) activities, all organisations should report on their activities and the impact of their operations concerning all core issues covered in ISO 26000. If an organisation does not consider an issue relevant to itself, it should explain why ("comply or explain principle")."
Note the emphasis on all. Now there are only one hundred and eighty one thousand two hundred and fifty three words in the New Testament. So are they trying to invent a new religion. It will be produced in all the languages of the world. Don't worry you have got until 2010 before it hits your inbox. The three hundred plus specialists have a few more conferences to attend yet. At one of their recent meetings a point for discussion was the: "Criteria for stakeholder identification and prioritisation were defined more concretely." So that's alright then?
It is likely that someone will write to this esteemed journal and claim my figures are inaccurate. Maybe they are but it is the principle of an all encompassing system on how we should behave, communicate and even think that scares the heck out of me. I would like to think that any fair thinking business person would wish to behave in a socially responsible manner without having to have a value system imposed. Would you be allowed to print a T-Shirt with ‘Mary Poppins for Prime Minister?' If you dared maybe you could confess it during your ISO 26000 audit to be absolved of this PC crime.
T-Shirts are increasing as communication media. Pop groups and other recording artists are finding that promotional Ts are a good income generator. Their profits were previously made from CDs but they have been dramatically reduced by internet downloads. T-shirts and other printed promotional items are proving an acceptable but necessary source of income. Unless you are a top act attached to a major record label the volumes required are relatively small and ordering many weeks ahead can murder their cash flow. The effect of this trend is to see more examples of print being sourced locally in the United Kingdom.
MD of Colenso Screen Services, Mark Colenso, said: "Sales of textile printing inks, particularly plastisol, are buoyant in the UK. We are seeing continued growth in a sector that was considered to be dying."
The point he made was that the applications were niche markets. One thing is clear, fashion changes quickly, with suppliers having to respond in days rather than weeks. The historical textile printing capital of Leicester has virtually disappeared as a printing centre. The large production units have been closed down as work has been transferred off-shore to India and the Far East. This is fine for the applications that will tolerate extended deliveries in sea containers but with inventories in shops and wholesalers being reduced due to the cost of credit the mega deals of the not to distant past are becoming flights of fantasy.
All these factors reinforce the slow resurgence of textile printing. Even digital textile printing is stimulating the market for top quality screen printed designs. Once the client realises they can have an image applied to their garment quickly with digital printing they also want the special effects that they have seen on other garments that only screen printing can offer.
In the work-ware market companies such as The Promotion Company of Hull are booming and Richard Oldroyd, its main man, puts it down to high quality service to a local market. Companies in the Far East and India cannot possibly compete with the complete product offering he can offer.
Plastisols are still a key tool for the textile printer and there is justifiable concern about the use of PVC and phthalates in their formulation. In response to this manufacturers are providing PVC free, phthalate free and formulations that have neither.
What are phthalates? Phthalates are liquid plasticisers that are added to polyvinylchloride (PVC). Once heated the plasticisers are absorbed into the resin and act as a softener, resulting in a flexible plastic film. There has been much spoken and written about the negative health effects of phthalates to what degree these dangers are as stated is contradicted by other opinions. Suffice to say that as with many chemicals whose use has been common place in the past their applications are being challenged: this being the case with both PVC and phthalates.
Ink suppliers are dealing with this by providing inks that are either phthalate free, PVC free or both. These inks claim to have very similar characteristics to plastisols and from the end users point of view they are indistinguishable. Companies such as Wilflex, FujiFilm Sericol, Grafco and the like all have inks that fall into this category.
