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Decorate It!—Screen Printing on Jackets and Outerwear
The Essentials The first thing to consider with outerwear is the level of difficulty. Once you veer away from T-shirts and fleece, you enter a world of nylon, various linings, zippers and other obstructions. Though poly blends and other "print friendly" fabrics are used for outerwear, nylon and other non-absorbent fabrics are typical. These "unfriendly" fabrics don’t allow adequate "wet on wet" printing; therefore, each color must be flashed to partially cure the ink. The heat from the flashes shrinks the fabric and this can lead to poor registration. Handling outerwear garments also is time consuming. Because they are too bulky to print on automatic machines, they must be printed manually. Also, jackets require a special clamp to hold them in place, because they cannot be held down to the printing pallet with a light adhesive like T-shirts. It takes 15 to 30 seconds to load and unload a jacket, plus 15 to 30 seconds to print and flash each color. This gives you an average rate of 30 garments per hour for a 4-color job. Compare this to rates of 500 T-shirts per hour regardless of how many colors are used. It is essential you charge enough to cover such low rates. You also must consider the replacement costs of the garment. This includes not only the product cost, but also the cost to reset a job and the reprint. Outerwear misprints are very costly, but unfortunately inevitable. An experienced pressman will minimize the loss, but planning for mistakes is essential. Remember, outerwear is typically purchased in specific quantities by size to outfit the staff of a particular company, so misprints will likely require replacement, not just a credit. If possible, order extras in the same size scale as the order. The Artwork Outerwear artwork can be provided in the same method and format as for T-shirts. Modifications to art should be suggested by the printer and may include increasing line weights and openings to accommodate for detail loss. Simplifying artwork to just one or two colors is often a good idea. The Screen Printing Decorators typically print on the crest and/or back of jackets. Printing on sleeves can prove difficult and should be avoided. If you need pants printed, such as for a jogging suit, bear in mind that long prints down the leg are not easy and many printers will be limited in imprint area. Be careful if printing over buttons and seams since they will not allow a flat surface and ink will flow unevenly, causing clumpy imprints. Since nylon does not absorb ink, fine screen meshes should be used to avoid blurry edges and loss of detail from excessive ink flow. Plastisol ink, the norm for wearables, requires approximately 320 degrees for a 1-minute flash. For nylon fabrics, a catalyst must be added to plastisol to bond it to the fabric. If a catalyst is not used, the ink will peel off. Printing nylon and jackets, in particular, requires experience and skill. Multiple squeegee passes can create problems, so a printer must get it right the first time. One important step is to“pre-shrink” the fabric using a flash cure, which is done before printing the first color. Doing this smoothes out any wrinkles in the fabric and keeps the fabric from shifting so multiple colors can be printed in register. Unlike T-shirts, nylon fabric does not require a second hit of white since the ink sits on top of the fabric. The Results Don’t expect to achieve high-end graphics from every printer. Most screen printers, if willing to print jackets, will be fine with simple logos in one or two colors. However, there are printers who excel in this area, but they are not common. It is best not to assume anything and check with your printer immediately before telling your customer "yes". |
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