www.images-magazine.com APRIL 2022 images 75 TIPS & TECHNIQUES Tony Palmer has been in the garment decoration industry for over 30 years and is now an independent print consultant working closely with print shops to get the most from existing processes and techniques. He is passionate about keeping and enhancing production skill levels within the industry. He is the owner and consultant at Palmprint Consultants, offering practical help and assistance to garment decorators all over the globe. www.palmprintuk.com washers turned up to over 100 psi and blasted at microscopic range! This is also going to weaken the glue. With a barrier now formed, it is essential to use a coating trough that is larger than the open area; resting the edge of the trough on this new glue barrier will ensure no gaps appear, and by coating from the bottom to the top you can create a perfect seal. Blocking out furniture such as reg marks The modern technique of computerto-screen (CTS) directly images the stencil and also registers it in the perfect place before it reaches the press, so we don’t really need reg marks these days. As for the labels, ask the guy in the art department to turn off the Bon Jovi album, take off his stonewashed denim, leave behind the 1990s, step into the 2020s and use the technology available to place the colour information labels outside of the range of the squeegee. If this uses an extra inch of film then accept the cost as it is still cheaper than watching three operators cleaning the latest leak from 50 shirts while another guy is chasing a leak from the neck to the hem, stubbornly refusing to take off the old three metres of tape he has used so far. Helping press operators to feel all warm and cuddly inside Press operators love a comfort blanket. We will never remember the 4,552 jobs that have gone by without incident, but we will remember with astounding clarity the one time we got kicked around the factory for missing a light blue leak on the 12 shirts that happened to be coming off the press at the exact same moment that the owner walked past with the most important client in the history of printing. Proving that the system works is the best way to convince an operator to step away from the familiar guarantee of the self-adhesive plastic film we have come to love and that we have believed for years is an intrinsic part of the dark art we call printing. Do I use tape? Yeah, I do. I keep it to a minimum and I try not to spend lots of money on the sort of split tape that has adhesive on just one half of it. (I wish I had thought of that, charging more money for tape where only half of it is sticky.) I don’t put plastic tape on water-based screens as it sweats badly – the adhesive used on the tape can be water-based too and this just makes it slide off during the first wash. I will run a piece of tape on the ink side of a large-run print job, and always in the direction of the squeegee, but in my defence, I am a printer! I’m stubborn and I like a comfort blanket now and again. If you are using Newman Roller frames then ignore all of the above. These frames don’t use glue, they are round tubular frames that are designed to re-tension the mesh as needed – they are turned like a medieval witch on a rack! Because they don’t have a definitive edge to them (the edge needs to move), we can’t permanently block the sides with a blocking chemical. I can’t see another solution for you apart from taping. The takeaway: To sum up, my answer to Artie is make sure the screens are in a good condition and the process is consistent. If tape is used, then I see no point in taping the ink side and the shirt side: we are not printing with sulphuric acid! Start to limit the tape to one side only and check the coating techniques. If gaps appear then look at a larger trough. If the glue is being removed during the reclaim process then look at this as well. Tony does use tape still although he keeps it to a minimum Extending the glue that holds the mesh to the frame creates a barrier to the ink
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