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PPaarrtt TTwwoo Running Time 10:12 Running Time 10:30
Equipment
In order to keep a lined jacket from moving while it is printed, you will need a jacket hold-down (6.2). Without a good holdhold-down you might as well give up. There are other ways to hold down a jacket (get your employees to hold it while sitting on the floor, etc., etc.) but if you want consistent results then use a holddown. It will make your quality better and reject rate lower! Pretty simple. If the jacket doesn’t have a lining, then regular spray adhesive is all you’ll need to hold it in place.
If you don’t want to spend $400 on a hold-down for your press, then look at other compa-nies’ holding devices. Some manufacturers offer less expensive holddowns that will fit a variety of presses.
One option to using a holddown is to use spring clamps around the outer edge of the jacket (6.3). These will make the process go a little slower than a standard holddown would, but will work if you are on a budget. These clamps are available from most hardware stores and have rubber end protectors so they won’t damage the jacket.
Use the Correct Screen
You can use the same screens for printing jackets that you use for T-shirts. The only differ-ence is that you will not need to use as low a mesh count for dark jackets since they do not bleed like shirts.
In most cases, you can use a 125 (49 cm) mesh for dark jackets and 180 (70 cm) or higher for light jackets. The tighter the fabric, the better the print. You can use either direct emulsion or capillary direct film for your stencil.
Nylon Ink Systems
This is an area where you want to be very careful. Since nylon is very slippery and tightly woven, you can’t use a standard plastisol on it. It will not adhere to the material. There are a num-ber of nylon ink systems on the market, some of which work better than others. Remember, you do not want the ink to come off the jacket!
The most popular ink system consists of a reg-ular plastisol with a special bonding agent that is added to the ink (6.4). The bonding agent is like a urethane glue that helps the plastisol stick to the nylon and also makes the ink much more durable.
Most manufacturers offer these systems. The beauty of them is that you don’t have to stock a variety of special inks just for jackets. You can mix the bonding agent with any of your all-pur-pose plastisols!
6.2 A good jacket hold-down is very expensive, but well worth the money!
6.4 The most popular nylon jacket ink sys-tem is a special bond-ing agent that you add to regular plastisol.
6.3 An optional holding method is to use heavy-duty spring clamps around the jacket.
Since the weight of plastisols vary depending on the color of the ink, you need to add the bond-ing agent by weight when mixbond-ing it (6.5). If you can’t mix by weight then make sure to add more bonding agent to lighter, more opaque colors.
Once you add the bonding agent, the mixture must be used within 8-12 hours or it will harden.
Just mix what you need for a job. If you add too much bonding agent, it may harden faster, but if you are in doubt as to how much you need to add – add more. Each ink manufacturer has different mixing directions, so be sure to ask for the pro-duct’s technical data sheet when you order it.
The biggest problem with a plastisol/bonding agent mixture is that the ink becomes much thin-ner. In fact, it is sometimes too thin to print. If you are printing on a light-colored jacket with a lining, the ink may penetrate through the nylon and print on the lining.
There are a couple of ways to make the ink thicker. You can put the mixture in a refrigerator to make it colder or you can let it sit for a few hours to slowly thicken. In addition to this, some brands of ink are thicker than others and you should try to use a brand that is thicker to start with.
Flash-Curing Jackets
A flash-cure unit is a must when printing nylon jackets. Not only do you need it to print multicolor, you also need it to preheat the nylon before the first print. Preheating shrinks the nylon for a tighter fit in the holddown and also softens it and partially burns off sizing, stabilizers and waterproofing. This will help your ink adhere bet-ter!
To preheat the jacket, simply place the flash unit over it while it’s in the holddown. If you have the unit set 2 in. above the jacket, you should be able to preshrink and preheat it in less than 10 seconds (6.6).
Running a jacket through the dryer is not the same as preheating it on the holddown. You defeat the purpose of shrinking the jacket to pro-duce a tighter surface while on the holddown.
Printing Technique
It takes a good feel for the squeegee to get a good print. You need to do a stroke that is not too fast or too slow. An even stroke that cleans off the screen is very important (6.7). Your screen should obviously be adjusted to sit slightly off-contact over the jacket (not just the shirtboard) for the best print quality.
Use a medium squeegee with a very sharp edge. Too much pressure on the squeegee will allow the ink to press out around the stencil, giv-ing a slight ghost to the print. Always try to do just one stroke. If you must do two strokes keep them both in the same direction.
Sometimes a lined jacket will stick to the screen when it’s lifted. As the print peels from the screen, you get a ring or circular mark in the image. A good technique is to do a clean stroke and then quickly snap the screen upward. This snap releases the screen quickly from the print and gives a sharper image. It’s all in the wrist. This snap technique may not be necessary if your ink is flowing correctly and the jacket is releasing on its own during the stroke.
6.5
6.6
6.7 6.5 Make sure to mea-sure the bonding agent/plastisol mixture by weight.
6.6 For better ink adhesion preheat the jacket before you print on it.
6.7 Print with a firm, slow stroke to allow the ink to flow through the mesh onto the gar-ment.
Multicolor Printing Techniques Because nylon is non-absorbent, you can’t print multicolor designs wet-on-wet: you need to flash cure between colors. The flash time can be fairly short (5-10 seconds) – just enough to gel the ink so it is dry to the touch (6.8). Since nylon shrinks when heated, you must preshrink the jack-et under the flash-cure unit before making the first print.
Curing the Print
After printing the jacket, run it through the dryer. It may take more than one trip through to get the ink dry to the touch. Although the plastisol portion of the ink will cure when it goes through the dryer, the bonding agent needs 72 hours to fully cure! Be very careful that you do not give out the jackets for a couple of days after printing.
Also, be very careful about stacking them. They may feel dry but not actually be cured. The best approach is to dry them through the dryer and then hang them for a few days to fully cure.
Set your dryer belt speed a little faster than normal. The thickness of the material places it closer to the heating elements and can cause it to burn if you run it the same as for a T-shirt (6.9).
Problems and Solutions
You may encounter some problems when printing jackets. If the print does not adhere well, the jacket may be heavily treated and require that the waterproofing be removed before printing. If the jackets are already printed or customers are returning them, take all of the jackets to a dry cleaner and ask them to try to remove the print.
Believe it or not, dry cleaning will sometimes remove the print. There may be a slight shadow from the previous print. If so, you will need to reprint the design in the same exact location.
Printing on the front of a jacket is difficult because of the snaps, pockets, collar, seams and other obstructions. Raising the print area with a small block of wood or sponge rubber will help to make this task a bit easier (6.10).
Applying Heat Transfers to Jackets We do not recommend applying plastisol heat transfers to nylon jackets. They do not adhere well, even if you use the nylon bonding powder that many suppliers carry. One option is to buy specially made die-cut letters and transfers from suppliers who specialize in these products (6.11).
Sublimation transfers are excellent for light-colored jackets (especially satin finished polyester jackets) and can be custom made for you or print-ed from inkjet printers with special sublimation dyes. See Chapter 5 for more details on sublima-tion transfers.
6.8 You must cure between colors when printing multicolor prints on nylon.
6.9 Make sure to increase the belt speed when curing the print.
It may require more than one time through the dryer.
6.10 When printing a chest print you should raise the print area with a small block of wood.
6.11 Special die-cut letters and numbers work well if applied properly.
constructed.
Direct Printing or Heat Transfers?
Direct printing is certainly the quickest deco-rating method. It does not always produce a sharp edge to the print though, because of the soft print-ing surface. Direct printprint-ing is more difficult when printing multicolor work if you have to flash-cure between colors because might need a special curved cap heater or use a heat gun. Direct print-ing is the only method to use if you are goprint-ing to print with puff inks. Direct puff prints are far superior to transfer puff prints.
Heat transfers will produce very sharp prints that look good on both light and dark cap fronts.
If you use the powdered adhesive mentioned in Chapter 5, you can print fine-detail designs on caps. Transfers will take longer, however, because you have to make the transfers first and then apply them.
If the job calls for a simple one- or two-color design on a light front cap, or if the job requires puff ink, then use the direct printing method. If the image has lots of colors or is going on a dark-front cap, then make a heat transfer. Your cus-tomer really won’t care, and you should use the best method for the job.
Direct Printing Caps
The problem with printing directly on the cap front is that you are printing on a round surface that is soft. The two main ways to directly print a cap are curved screen systems and flat screen sys-tems. Both systems work fairly well. Plan to ruin dozens of caps before you get the hang of loading the cap straight and printing on such a small, soft surface.
Both systems are available as stand-alone units just for caps or ones that also have standard shirtboards (6.12). In fact, most manufacturers of printing presses offer inexpensive cap attach-ments (6.13). Flat screen attachattach-ments are so inex-pensive that one can be placed on each printing arm for high production – while one person prints another loads and unloads. For a flat screen setup, use a frame that has one thin wall (strip of alu-minum) so that the image can be positioned close to the edge of the frame (6.14). This allows the
visor of the cap to stay up when the cap is printed.
Hold caps in place with spray adhesive and take care when loading them so you don’t distort the front.
To achieve the best print quality on light-col-ored cap fronts use a monofilament mesh count of 200-250 (78-100 cm). By printing through fine mesh with a plastisol ink that has been reduced to a very creamy consistency, using a sharp
squeegee and printing with one or two passes in the same direction, you can get a very respectable print!
On dark cap fronts you will have to go to a lower mesh count such as an 86-94 (34-37 cm).
Use a high-opacity low-bleed plastisol ink and print with two or three strokes in the same direc-tion. The print will not look as sharp as on the
6.12 Special printing presses are available that are designed specifi-cally to print on baseball caps, golf caps and sport caps. You can also do T-shirts on the same press.
(Top photo courtesy R. Jennings Mfg., Glens Falls, NY. Bottom photo courtesy Workhorse Products, Phoenix, AZ.) 6.13 Most manufactur-ers offer inexpensive attachments for holding a cap front flat during printing. (Right photo courtesy Hix Corp., Pittsburg, KS.)
light caps. If you’re using a puff ink, use the stan-dard 86-94 (34-37 cm) mesh.
Some of the stiffer golf and poplin caps are harder to direct print. They generally have a plas-tic liner that gets in the way, and they do not always want to lay flat. You may ruin a few before you get just the right technique down with these caps.
High Density Images
Chapter 7 - Special Effects Printing, covers the use of high density prints. This “3-D” effect is very popular on baseball caps and allows you to even print on caps with seams (6.15).
Corduroy Caps
Corduroy caps present a special problem because of the grooves of the corduroy material.
The only effective way to print these caps is to use the direct print method, and by mixing a little puff additive to regular plastisol. Just mix enough so that the print will puff slightly and actually fill in the grooves.
Painters Caps
These are easy to print because they don’t have a foam lining and are not stiff. Just use your regular cap attachment and the appropriate mesh for either light or dark material.
Curing and Drying Cap Prints
Caps with visors present some problems. The bill gets in the way when using a flash-cure unit (although some manufacturers do make a small cap heater). Some dryers are designed just for caps, while some multi-purpose dryers have an additional heater on the side for caps. You can also use an industrial heat gun if you are careful.
If you want to run the caps through your regu-lar dryer, try placing them so that the crown is facing up slightly by stacking them against each other (6.16).
Art Preparation
The only other helpful tip for cap printing is to make the art simple and readable, and to keep the print area smaller than 4 in. wide x 3 in. high (10.16 x 7.62 cm).