Screen Printing Victoria – Process and Technique

Here is an explanation of the screen printing victoria technique that we apply at print shop victoria, Rain Coast. It is the oldest and most widely used technique that has withstood the test of time. A screen is built with a square wood frame and a mesh is placed tightly over the frame and secured in place. The screen mesh is made of a nylon thread. The mesh can be more open or tighter and both have different purposes. A more open mesh allows more ink to pass through and transfer to the actual garmet, the t shirt print victoria, a tighter mesh allows less ink to pass through and is used for more intricate designs where more detail is the requirement. Remember the mesh must be super tight and pulled over the frame to hold its’ shape and be effective in the transfer of ink. The frame of the screen is usually made of wood or aluminum. We have both at print shop victoria, Rain Coast. I prefer the wood, it feels better and I like working with old time methods. We check the tension of the screens regularly with a tool called a tensionmeter in newton per cm.

Next we sketch on the screen where the image file will go with a pencil. This is the part of the image that will be burnt into the screen, where the ink can only pass through, this is the next step on our way to t shirt printing victoria bc.

Now before we are ready to print we need one final crucial step. We must transfer the logo image which has been printed on clear photo paper to the screen where the ink will be pressed through and transferred onto the final t shirt print victoria. The way we do this is, I go up to my dark room and with a clear screen ready to go, I scoop photo emulsion ink across the mesh and let it dry in the dark. It is sensitive to the light and if was exposed to light, it would be ruined, very important to remember. When I was a rookie spoiled a few screens and had to start over because my dark room wasn’t fully dark.

When the new screen is dry with it’s emulsion ink we take the logo paper and use an exposure unit, think of like a tanning bed, and that burns the logo image into the screen by burning away the emulsion ink ONLY from the parts the logo exposes to the light, pretty cool. The final pre-printing process for t shirt printing victoria bc is to tape off any unwanted exposed parts of the screen that have faults. Sometimes there are small holes that are exposed that ink could tranfer to, so you tape those off so nothing unwanted transfers to your garment.

Part two will continue in the next blog, be sure to check us out for all your t shirt printing victoria needs. We do lots of custom clothing work including team jerseys, vinyl cutting and of course our main part of our growing business, screen printing victoria. Thanks and see you soon!