The Process of T-Shirts Printing and How it's Done

Silk screen printing, as it is referred to, is actually a misleading term as the screens that are used in today's processes are usually synthetic. The uses of screen printing are far and wide and you will find the results of this most any place that you look. Signs and Banners, Labels, stickers, and of course t-shirts printing and textiles of all kinds have all been screen printed along with numerous other things that you may have never guessed.

History

The history of screen printing dates back to as early as the mid 900's AD during the Chinese Song Dynasty, and was also used by the Japanese in the 15^th and 16^th Centuries. As you can see screen printing has been around for a long time. While the supplies and equipment used have evolved over the years the same basic principal that was used so many years ago are still employed today.

Today's Process

The process all starts with computer generated artwork. Once we have the artwork, it is then separated by color into separate plates that are then printed onto transparencies or vellum using an ink jet or laser printer. In other words, if there are three colors in the design there will be three different transparencies or velums. Next, the screens which are stretched very tightly onto frames are coated with a photosensitive material called emulsion and dried in low light conditions to avoid exposing them. Once dry the transparencies that we have are applied to one side of the screen and then exposed to ultraviolet light. This hardens all the emulsion that is not behind the transparency and makes it water resistant. Once the exposure is complete the unexposed areas behind the transparency are washed out with high pressure spray leaving a stencil of that particular color in the design. This process needs to be completed for each color in the design and finally the completed screens are mounted on the machine and registered relative one to the other. Ink is applied to each screen and and forced through the stencil with the use of a rubber squeegee onto the material being printed. To complete the process the ink is cured in an oven.

Conclusion

As you can see the actual t-shirts printing process is quite labor intensive and there is much more involved than the average person realizes. From this description of the process it is easy to understand why many shops have minimum quantities for t-shirts printing orders.