Posted by Steven Grant - Texsource Indiana on 7/10/2014
Often we at Texsource field lots of questions on DTG (Direct To Garment) products and techniques.  For those who might be considering such a process, it is important to understand some things in making your decision. 

 - Carefully Control Your Environment - The physical properties of the water-based inks are incredibly sensitive, changing drastically based on the external environmental conditions.  For instance if the air in your print room is too hot or dry, the ink will quickly dry in the print head causing nozzle blockage and other related issues; this can manifest in moderate to severe banding (missing or rough lines in the printed image) or even entire nozzles dropping out.

 - The Process Is Slow - Here, screen printers have a huge advantage when the ink actually hits the t-shirt; screen printing presses (even the manual variety) are considerably quicker when it comes to actually printing, whereas the process on a DTG printer can take quite some time.  Although white shirts are relatively quick (its not uncommon to knock out 20-50 white shirts per hour, depending on your particular equipment, setup and print resolution), dark shirt printing can be the bane of any DTG print business – realistically, expect to print about 8-15 black shirts per hour under normal circumstances.

 - Garment Selection is Very Important - DTG printing is not intended to be used on all garment types; in fact, the inks tend to work best when applied to 100% cotton, so it is best to avoid 50/50 blends and other non-cotton fabrics as much as possible.

Equipment and Supplies Are Expensive - Getting into DTG printing can represent a huge financial risk for a small business on the edge; with many DTG printers averaging around $20,000, you can easily wind up spending $25-$30,000 for an entire printing package (complete with printer, pre-treatment machine, heat press, supplies, shipping, training, etc).
You Must Pre-Treat Some Garments - While you won’t find yourself laying emulsion or burning screens, most people don’t realize that every single dark garment that you print must be sprayed with a “pre-treatment fluid” to prepare the surface for receiving the ink.  Unfortunately, this is currently true regardless of which brand of DTG printer you are using or which brand of ink you are using.

Not As Durable as Screen Printing - A very important point, and it is still a common issue among many DTG print shops, especially when they don’t fully understand all the factors that ultimately affect the wash-fastness of the print.

Impossible Color Matching - Well, perhaps not impossible, but there is no “magic color profile” that will work for all situations, all the time!  Your own subjective opinions, as well as those of your clients (which will vary greatly), will ultimately affect your expectations regarding what you want to see on a t-shirt

Texsource knows and understands screen printing, and we stand behind it as we feel that it is the very best method of garment printing both now and in the future.  

Texsource Screen Printing Supply
888-344-4657

Texsource Screen Printing Supply  www.screenprintingsupply.com


Posted by Jason Cabaniss - Outside Sales on 6/23/2014

The newest series of automatic presses from Workhorse is the Sabre Series, and it is a truly impressive machine.

Workhorse Equipment seems to have given significant thought to every aspect of the design and function of the new series and it shows.  Our demo unit here at Texsource has proven to be extremely easy to learn for those who would be considering moving up from a manual press, which is important.  Here are some words on it from Workhorse themselves - 

Workhorse is excited to introduce the latest from our stable of automatic presses. The new Sabre Series line has set the standard for high production and high quality at an affordable price. Workhorse combines their 30 year history of quality products, services and resources with some of the latest in screen printing technologies. These technologies include a revolutionary patent pending indexing system and a never before seen touch screen control panel offering unmatched functionality. The Sabre is available in 6, 8 and 10 color configurations. All models feature our patented flashback capabilities, a pivoting control panel with touch-screen display, micro-registration, independent floodbar and squeegee pressure adjustments, quick release pallets with a standard 20X20” (51CM X 51CM) image area.

Some of the features that are not in that write-up are 
 - Foot Pedal Control
 - Index System
 - Adjustable Screen Clamps & Holders
 - Flashback System
 - Operator Control Center
 - Enhanced Micro Registration
 - Improved Squeegee / Floodbar
 - Two Year Warranty

Practically every part of the operation of the Sabre can be controlled from the integrated touchscreen pad, which can also save all job settings into cloud storage.  Need to run a print that you did 4 years ago?  Pull it up, enter it, and hit go.  Have a look at a video that explains it better than I can.  


The best news is that Workhorse has made this the most affordable automatic to date, and with Texsource financing it is easy to see this sitting in your shop soon.  Call Texsource to schedule a personal demo of the Sabre Series today!  

Texsource Screen Printing Supply
888-344-4657

Texsource Screen Printing Supply  www.screenprintingsupply.com


Posted by Ronnie Cannon - Outside Sales on 6/12/2014


What can I really learn at the Texsource screen printing classes that are offered in the various locations?  Is it worth it for me to take the class?

One of the things that sets Texsource apart from other supply dealers is that we believe in a well informed and educated customer, and we believe that it is our responsibility as industry leaders to stay on top of all the latest trends, products, and techniques, and to pass that knowledge on to our customers.  

Texsource spends a good deal of resources keeping our staff educated.  We attend trade shows, seminars, product introductions, and generally try to keep up with everything we can.  We pass this information on to you here on our website, at our open house, at other industry trade shows, and in our classes.  When you spend your money on a product at Texsource, we want you to know the ins-and-outs of that product, to know how to maximize its use and get the most for your money.  

Our classes are an excellent example of this.  Texsource offers classes such as introductory classes, for those who have never screen printed at all.  Specialty printing classes, for using materials other than standard screen printing inks.  This lets you offer products that other printers will not, and give you an opportunity to increase your profits.  We offer embroidery classes, sign-making classes, Corel and Illustrator classes, website classes to help with your marketing.    Anything that we believe could benefit your business, we will try to help with.  

Our classes used to be quite large, with several dozen attendees.  But what we found over time is that we were not giving the singular attention to each attendee that we needed to give.  So we have trimmed down our available seating to around 12-15 at most.  This gives our instructors time and opportunity to get to know you, what your experience is, your level of knowledge, and what your goals are.  Classes are about half lecture, half hands-on, so the smaller class size gives each attendee much more time with the actual process.  This is likely the biggest benefit, and the part of our classes that gets the most positive comments from attendees.  And there is always time for questions.  We feel that if you go away with unanswered questions, then we have not done our job well enough.  

So rest assured that when we have a class, we have done our homework too, and are bringing you the most accurate information that we can.  We are here to serve our customers, and take educating you very seriously.  Our success depends on your success! 

Texsource Screen Printing Supply
888-344-4657

Texsource Screen Printing Supply  www.screenprintingsupply.com


Posted by Dwayne Collins - Outside Sales on 5/29/2014

Recently I had an opportunity to do a short video demonstrating a technique to clean very difficult screens.  I thought I might follow up with some words and instructions to make it even easier.  

The screens that we were using were taken from our washout booth that we use for our screen printing classes here at Texsource.  There were being used in the filtration system for the booth, so as you might can imagine they were absolutely saturated with emulsion, ink, diazo, chemicals, and everything else you might can imagine going down that system.  The screens were in a dual-layer configuration - one was on top of the other.  Both of them had been covered to the point that water could no longer go through the screens.  They were completely covered in this mess of chemicals - it is doubtful your shop would ever see screens in this condition (other than being used in a filtration system, of course).  

I started by spraying a generous amount of Easiway EasiStrip on both the front and back of the screen, followed by a similar amount of Easiway 701.  EasiStrip is primarily an emulsion remover, with 701 service as a haze remover and degreaser.  Now in the video I spray and pretty much immediately spray with a pressure washer.  As you can see, the screen came amazingly clean on first application.  Ideally, I would have let the screen soak just a bit longer with my sprays - you would have seen even greater results; but we had great results either way.  

As a follow up, I sprayed a small amount of each on the screen again and utilized a scrub brush briefly, then pressure washed again.  As you can see, this screen came out looking like new.  You could have easily went and dried the screen and used it on the press.  

I have been asked how to get out 'impossible' stains on a screen.  Well, as you can see these screens were in pretty bad shape.  If you continue to have a problem area on your screen that seems to defy even this cleaning, try using a 50 cent piece-sized drop of Rhino HR2800 on the stain, following the directions on the carton.  This is some of the strongest stuff that is made for stain removal and should be able to reclaim even the most difficult areas.  

Now have a look at this video and see the difference the Easiway products made on both of the screens we cleaned - both in less that 5 minutes.  

Texsource Screen Printing Supply
888-344-4657

Texsource Screen Printing Supply  www.screenprintingsupply.com


Posted by Bubba Thomas - Georgia Location Manager on 5/14/2014

One thing that I have been hearing a fair amount lately is customers asking about pallet setup and pallet adhesives.  Here is a rundown of what Texsource offers, and proper use of adhesives.  

Flash Tack Adhesives
A flash tack adhesive, such as Albatross 1786, Camie 375, Sprayway 87, and Texsource Texflash Tack work well on darker colors and when using a flash unit.  They stick better and become tackier when heat is applied.  You will apply flash tack adhesive much less often when using heat, but these also have a good tack when used cold.

Mist Adhesives 
Mist adhesives work best on light colored garments, and when no flash is needed or used.  Excellent examples of these include Albatross 1782, Camie 380, Sprayway 382, and Texsource Screen Adhesive.  This type of adhesive is less ideal for thicker garments and may need to be applied more often.

Web Adhesives
Web adhesives is a very tacky adhesive that is an excellent choice for heavier garments such as sweatshirts, towels, and other garments with a more uneven cloth pattern.  The adhesive comes out and makes a 'web' of adhesive on the pallet that is not as evenly distributed as mist or flash tack, but is sticker and thicker then either.  Consider Sprayway 383, Camie 385, or Texsource Tex-Webb adhesives.
Water-Based Adhesives
Water based adhesives give several advantages over aerosol-based adhesives.  They are non-aerosol, so there are no fumes or airborne agents that can easily be breathed in, they can be purchased in larger quantities, there are spray adapters and sprayers that make frequent applications in busy shops much easier, and they typically last longer on the pallet than spray adhesives.  The Albatross 1082, Tekmar TB-10, and Tekmar TB-EZ are all excellent water-based adhesives.  These adhesives are generally not as good on heavier products that web adhesives would be used for.  

Tekmar TB-EZ is an excellent water-based adhesive

Pallet Paper
As always, you should cover your pallet with a good pallet tape and paper, such as the Texsource Pallet Paper.  Use the appropriate spray or water-based adhesive and your shirts will remain in place throughout the printing process, and cleanup will be quick and fast!

Texsource Screen Printing Supply
888-344-4657

Texsource Screen Printing Supply  www.screenprintingsupply.com

Posted by Ryan Bolin - Outside Sales on 3/28/2014 - 

Wikipedia tells us that Dye Sublimation is a computer printer which employs a printing process that uses heat to transfer dye onto materials such as plastic, card, paper, or fabric.  But can your business profit from the investment? 

What Do I Need?
Before you jump in head-first, you must first consider the cost and complexity of the process. Sublimation is not just printing and applying - there are more factors that contribute to a perfect print. Here are some of the things you will need.
- Sublimation Ink Compatible Printer such as Epson and Ricoh printers.
- Sublimation Paper such as Image Right or TexPrint.
- Sublimation Ink available in cartridges, bulk bags and bottles.
- ICC Color Correction Profile to ensure that your colors come out perfect.
- Heat resistant tape if you are doing mugs, tiles, or caps, to keep your image from moving during the transfer process.
- Sublimatable Items - products that are compatible with sublimation. *note: not all mugs, tiles, t-shirts, and other imprintable items, are sublimation compatible*
- Heat press for bonding the image to the item. If you are doing mugs or caps, you need a mug or cap press, or attachments that can be bought for compatible presses.
- An ICC Profile compatible program, such as Photoshop, or CorelDraw. (Currently, the ICC Profiles cannot be managed in any other programs.)

So sublimation needs special ink, paper, and substrates with a polyester coating in order to work.

What sublimation can not do -
- Imprint cotton shirts. As mentioned before, sublimation needs polyester in order to complete the process of transfer. Sublimation will turn out best with only 100% polyester shirts. Cotton shirts should be completed with heat transfer paper.
- Imprint 65/35 and 50/50 shirts with bright colors. Since a percentage of the shirt is still cotton, the sublimation ink does not have enough polyester to create a vivid transfer. The image will end up with dull colors, especially after washing. Again, using heat transfers for cotton shirts is really the best option.
- Imprint colored shirts. Any colored background drastically alters the imprint colors. Since sublimation will become part of the shirt, any color already on the garment will overwhelm the transferred image.
- Imprint non-polymer-coated items. Remember that sublimation is printing into the coating, not the item.
- Imprint gold/silver metal used by award companies. This is another instance where the background color of the substrate will interfere with the image.

There are other factors in sublimation that will be determined by what equipment you have, such as substrate size and type, printer and paper, etc.  With the wide variety of products available to be sublimated to, you should easily be able to fill the needs of your customers with minimal investment of time and money.

Texsource Screen Printing Supply
888-344-4657

Texsource Screen Printing Supply  www.screenprintingsupply.com

Posted by Dwayne Collins - Outside Sales on 3/12/2014
One of the hardest things to do for startup shops is trying to figure our how to price their jobs - you want to try to price attractively to retain the customer, but you have all that new equipment to pay for - and of course you want a profit!  There are so many variables to figuring out the price for screen printing that this is one of the hardest things to do in our industry.

Product Brand/Style
The first major item that goes into determining the cost of screen printing is the product that is being screen printed itself.  The cost of a shirt, without any printing on it may range from as little as $2.00 to as much as $35.00. Hoodies, polo shirts, and other items can have even greater ranges.  The price for the product is also influenced by the quantity that is purchased. If you purchase 500 shirts you would pay less per shirt then if you ordered 10 shirts.  Determine your material costs and quantity for a good starting number.  

Design Locations
The more print locations you have on the shirt the greater the cost.  This is because for each location you must to setup the press with new screens and print that design as if it were a brand new project. This applies to every location you need to have printed on the same product. If you wanted a design on the left chest of a t-shirt, on the upper back, and on the lower back, that would constitute three different print locations, and would be priced appropriately. Now if the lower back and upper back design were moved closer to each other and placed in the center of the back, then the project would only be two colors, greatly reducing your printing cost.

Design Colors
This is one of the most difficult aspects for clients to understand. The basic concept is that the number of colors for each Design Location is used to determine what the screen printing charge will be. But this is not always as easy as it seems.  In many cases it can be very simplistic, in other cases not so easy.  Probably the most confusing part of this for clients is when they have the same color in two different design locations.  You as the screen printer have to know for each job how many screens are to be used and what type of inks will work best.  Depending on material, you may be able to use general purpose inks, or you may have to use polyester inks.  Other specialty inks such as neons and glitters may mean additional ink costs as well.

Graphics and Vectorization
We as screen printers require either high resolution or vector artwork. Some clients are able to provide this, but some just do not have the necessary files or graphic art skills to do so. In those cases you can assist clients with cleaning up the clients artwork or creating brand new unique artwork from scratch. The amount of time would varies with each project.  Determine an hourly rate for your time spent on this, and make the customer aware of exactly how much time you expect to spend on it and also the charges involved.

You are in business for profit (although screen printing is also fun), but starting out can sometimes be challenging especially when you may have competition in the area, but quality work and reasonable pricing will build strong word-of-mouth advertising for you and your business will grow quickly!

Texsource Screen Printing Supply
888-344-4657

Screen Restretching

Posted by Harvey Cole - Outside Sales on 2/3/2014

Screen printing is a printing style that uses a piece of fabric, called "mesh," stretched over an aluminum or wood frame. The mesh is stenciled, and then ink is rolled on and pressed to create an image on an object. This process is used for clothing, decals, product labels, signs, and displays. 
Mesh can be made from steel, nylon or polyester. When used repeatedly, it becomes slack, which affects the quality of your print. Screen Printing businesses have to decide whether to send their frames to a printing supplier to be re-stretched, or if they will do it themselves using glue and a stretching frame. This article will tell you how to re-stretch a mesh frame using adhesive.

Listed below are step by step instructions to properly restretch mesh screens.
1.    Be sure to clean your frame using a debonding solvent such as acetone to remove dirt, ink, and any remaining adhesive from your frame.

2.    Once the acetone solvent has been used, remove the used mesh from the frame. Adhesive should come off nicely as well.

3.    Using a piece of sandpaper, preferably 80 grit, sand the areas of your frame where the new mesh will be glued.

4.    Clean your frame using a tack cloth to ensure that all remaining adhesive has been removed.

5.    Next you will choose and adhesive. Depending on your mesh count, you may use a low or high viscosity adhesive. Choosing the right adhesive is crucial to be sure that your fabric (mesh) will adhere to the frame.

6.    Choose a mesh that is best suited for the type of printing you will be doing. Once you have chosen a mesh, cut the fabric slightly bigger than your frame.

7.    Place your frame on the restretching device you have chosen to use. The blocks in the middle of your screen will help to increase tension between the machine and the fabric.

8.    Place your fabric over your frame and insert it into the tension bars on your machine.

9.    While slowly increasing the tension, check the tension using a tension meter.

10. Once your tension is correct on your fabric, apply a lite coat of adhesive where the fabric attaches to the frame.
11. Make sure to allow your adhesive to dry and cure properly.
12. You can place weights on top of your frame to ensure that is doesn’t bend.
13. Once the fabric has dried, remove the tension bars and cut any excess fabric from the frame.

Things you might need:
·         Solvent (acetone)
·         Cloth
·         Tension meter
·         Adhesive
·         Frame
·         Wooden blocks
·         Sandpaper
·         Screen Stretching Machine


Texsource Screen Printing Supply
888-344-4657
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Copyright © 2017 ScreenPrintingSupply.com Blog - Learn from the Very Best!