Images_Digital_Edition_April_2019

Michelle Moxley, innovation director at M&R Companies and the person behind @NotoriousRandD on Instagram, explains how to get the most out of digital hybrid printing The best of bothworlds D igital hybrid printing is the newest technology to disrupt the screen print market. Hybrid printing is when an automatic screen printing press includes a CMYK digital printer on one of the screen print stations. DTG (direct-to-garment) and screen print each have their own unique strengths: DTG is capable of printing short run quantities with minimal ‘make ready‘ and offers efficient printing with easy repeatability. Screen print, on the other hand, offers high production speeds along with the ability to apply special effects, as well as allowing the printing of any ink colour on almost any fabric. Digital hybrid printing is screen printing a design and adding a digital enhancement. The first step in hybrid printing, exactly like traditional screen printing, is to make the screens. In this step-by-step guide, we used four screens to achieve a full-colour print with a metallic special effect application. The screens were imaged using direct- to-screen (DTS), which involves printing an image directly onto the surface of an emulsion and exposing the screen; we used the M&R I-Image STE I, which is able to generate and expose a full-size image in under a minute. The screens were coated with pure photopolymer emulsion to ensure the screen would be compatible with the high solid water-based screen printing inks we were using. The advantage of using DTS in a hybrid print space is that the digital art board and the DTS art board are shared, streamlining the registration between the two application methods. TIPS & TECHNIQUES www.images-magazine.com 80 images APRIL 2019