Printing Recommendations

High Density Ink

Advantages & Printing Recommendations

by Roger L. Jennings
www.rjennings.com

Advantages

Very high resolution for corporate logos, etc.
Flexible, light feel with no backing material in shirt to be uncomfortable rubbing against your chest.
Small details, e.g. images less than 1/4" (6 mm) are sharp.
High production rates on automatic or manual press.
All Pantone (R) colors can be matched.
New types of graphics, like textures, 3-dimensional, and lenticular, can be offered to customers. See examples under "What's New" at www.rjennings.com.
Very low investment necessary for new decorators and screen printers with platens that move from squeegee pressure.

Printing Recommendations - Pique Shirts

* * * Old fashion equipment & methods won't work * * *

Use retensionable frames with 110M mesh. Frames are made by Newman and Diamond Chase. Instructions for frames are at www.rjennings.com under "Printing Tips." High tension screens where the mesh will not move are required to print a uniformly thick 3-dimensional ink deposit and with square edges. Wooden frames won't work.
Use capillary film. Start with 100 microns for pique shirts. Capillary film is available from the Ulano Corp. Information on the use of capillary film is available at www.rjennings.com under "Printing Tips." Liquid emulsion will not allow printing a predictable thickness of ink.
Use Hi-Square ink from the Union Ink Company. The ink must release from the screen, and every color and batch of ink must print like every other color. There are great differences how one color of ink releases compared to another color from some ink companies. Other ink companies have more consistent inks comparing one color to another, but the ink still does not release easily from the screen. We recommend Union Ink to avoid problems while printing.
Use a shirt press where there is zero movement when pushing down on the platen. See "Products" at www.rjennings.com for photos of presses constructed to support the platen to allow printing a consistent ink film thickness rather than having the platen separate from the screen from squeegee pressure. A rigid platen is required to control the dimension of the ink.
Turn the belt speed on the conveyor dryer to a slower setting so that the thicker ink deposit gets more dwell time in the dryer for a full cure. The temperature may have to be reduced to prevent scorching.

Printing Recommendations - Caps

Retensionable cap frame with 60M mesh. Frames are made by Newman and Diamond Chase. For instructions to insert mesh, tension mesh, etc., see "Printing Tips" at www.rjennings.com. High tension screens are required to print a uniformly thick dimension of ink with square edges. Curved screens have no tension and won't work.
Use capillary film. Start with 150 - 250 microns. Capillary film is available from Ulano Corp. Information on its use is available under "Printing Tips" at www.rjennings.com.
Use high density ink. Hi-Square ink from Union Ink is recommended. If you do not use Union Ink, you are at risk of printing problems disrupting production.
Use a Jennings cap machine. The screen and platen will be parallel to deposit an even thickness of ink using very tight screens. Jennings is recognized with its patented technology as the leader in cap printing. Complete technical support is available at www.rjennings.com.
For 6-panel caps with the seam in the image area, place a piece of neoprene about 3/32" (2.4 mm) thick on the print surface on either side of the seam. Adjust for a different seam thickness with masking tape in the slot under the seam so there is no "speed bump" or "pot hole" in the road to printing.

For further assistance, contact roger@rjennings.com.

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