You are in:
Promoting the power of screen
PRINTING ON fabrics and promotional products encompasses a host of applications and substrates from textiles to titanium. Although this market segment is in fact huge, it can seem almost invisible to outsiders. Not only this, those who do become involved often overlook the skills required to produce quality output, thinking that any printing is just printing. This attitude is a double edged sword. The ignorant think it is easy and fail, and the experts pick up the pieces and make money.
Sadly most promotional products are sourced in the Far East and printed there, if the quantities are large enough and the lead times acceptable. To a purchaser of promotional items, the key elements of the product are the message and their logo. Get the logo wrong and you have a very unhappy customer. Having shipped goods across the world to discover the print is faulty is an expensive error.
With this fact in mind, more companies are sourcing their product overseas and having the printing done in the UK. This can bring considerable problems in identifying what material the substrate made from.
A typical example is provided by sub-contract printing facility, Component Print Services, in Croydon. The company was asked to print on an assembly produced in China, which the customer described as a form of modified ABS. A two colour logo was to be printed on the surface.
Print trials were carried out to establish its printability, yet no ink solvent combination or pre-treatment method gave suitable adhesion. In fact, the surface of the material started to break up with a light scratching because the material had not polymerised and it was impossible to print.
Keep it clean
When printing a batch of components it is necessary to check adhesion as the run progresses because the condition of the substrate can change due to contamination. This is particularly the case if mould release is sporadically used when moulding conditions are not ideal. If this is not spotted, print will deteriorate and rejects will mount up.
Whenever an object has to be printed, cleanliness and consistency in production of the original object is essential. With plastic mouldings variations in the moulding conditions will show up in changes in the surface, that in turn affect print adhesion. Care should also be taken to allow the objects being printed to reach print room temperature before they are printed. If they are cold relative to the air temperature in the print room there is a likelihood that invisible condensation will collect on the surface and compromise adhesion of the ink to the substrate.
Another issue often overlooked by clients who want products printed is the packing and unpacking time. This can turn a print production rate from what should be 300 per hour to less than 60 per hour. This also applies to additional cleaning operations due to dust or oil contamination. In this specialist field there are a range of issues to take into account.
Screen makes a stand
When printing promotional products, the most commonly used processes are screen printing, pad printing, hot foil printing and digital printing using sublimation techniques. Direct digital printing onto objects is limited due to the uneven shapes and the requirement for really good adhesion. This will probably improve, but to set up a business using exclusively digital techniques when printing on promotional products is limiting.
In the area of direct printing on to textiles, screen printing is still the most suitable process. Digital is fine for some proofing, very short runs or display function but for the thousands of metres that are printed for fashion and domestic applications, screen printing is pre-eminent. Screen printing in this application can take the form of flat bed or rotary.
It is rotary printing that is the most impressive. Printing a web of material up to three metres wide the machine consists of a series of printing heads, ten or more are not uncommon.
Roll with it
Standfast Barracks in Lancaster is one of the few remaining companies in the UK using rotary screen printing on a range of fabrics for the home, apparel and industrial applications. The company serves specialist markets for relatively short runs of high quality printed fabrics using rotary printers with repeat lengths of 53.7, 64.1, 68.8 and 91.4cm. The company's latest acquisition is the 20-colour MHM FP2S rotary screen printing machine.
Flat bed screen printers are also in operation when the repeat length of the design is too great for rotary printing, or the image is more suited to flat bed. Both printing systems operate on webs of material: up to 180cm for rotary printing and 152cm for flatbed.
In addition to printing, the company offers a range of pre and post treatment processes enabling the use of vat dyeing, acid, reactive, disperse, pigments and discharge inks. Finishing techniques include crease resist, flame retardant, soil resist, water repellent and chintz. One of the most attractive fabric treatment techniques is burnout where devore patterns are printed onto cotton/polyester fabrics. The burnout paste is printed onto the cloth and when heated turns into acid, which burns off the cotton leaving the polyester. The final effect produces designs suspended in a fine translucent material.
A Stork digital printing machine for textiles has also joined the line-up. This provides perfect synergy when printing short runs with the faster screen printing. Despite a difficult climate, Standfast Barracks is finding plenty of opportunities to do business in the UK, being able to react quickly with a quality of printing and fabric processing that is at the peak of technological development.
Printing promotional products and fabrics is a perfect example of finding a niche and specialising to differentiate from competitors. Establishing the customer's needs and satisfying them with the skills inherent in screen printing offers a path to stability. Although the overall economy may be ailing, the fleet of foot printer can always find a way to keep his presses running profitably.
