by Roger L. Jennings
www.rjennings.com
There are 5 panel, 6 panel, constructed, unconstructed, half moon stay and many other types of caps. Your success selling caps depends on getting the right cap for the job, and then knowing how to print that style of cap. This article will help.
Fashion Young people from school age through college to about age 29 wear the low profile cap that fits close to their head. Most of these caps are 6-panel caps, the caps with a seam down the center of the image area. These caps are very printable and sell for $12, $14 to $20 each.
Their parents wear a golf style cap that stands off of the head. This age group, 30-55, is less fashion conscious and will pay less for a cap, say $6 - $8 each.
Retired people are the least fashion conscious and most cost conscious. They may buy a foam front cap that will sell for $3 - $5. Foam fronts are also used as give-away caps, because of their low cost, but some people, such as the under age 29 crowd will not wear these caps regardless of being free. Questions? email: roger@rjennings.com.
Cap Construction Constructed caps have a fused (glued) buckram liner behind the front panel to keep the front panel from moving out of registration when an embroidery machine is punching holes with the speed of a machine gun. Constructed or fused buckram caps are intended for embroidery, not screen printing. If you have to screen print these caps, charge a higher price, order extra caps in case of a misprint, and put a 1/4" pad on the print surface that equals the dimension of the artwork. There are some constructed caps available that can be screen printed without any difficulty. For specific information on these caps, call Roger Jennings @ 518-798-2277 for the latest information. Cap styles and construction change frequently.
Unconstructed caps are flexible and intended for screen printing. The half-moon stay caps can also be screen printed by folding the liner out with the sweat band out of the way of the print surface when loading caps on the platen. After printing, the half moon stay is folded back in the cap. The cap could also then be embroidered.
Caps are made of many materials. All materials can be screen printed, but not necessarily used with transfers. For example, sublimation transfers require polyester caps. Hot split transfers go on any material. Four color process requires a 5 panel brushed, 100% cotton, cap to reproduce color accurately.
Foam front caps are the easiest cap to print. After a couple of hours of printing, an average printer who follows our cap handling procedures can print 200 one color caps per hour.
Seams Seams are a special problem when considering caps for printing. There are 3 types of seams, and the seam selected will affect printing. There are lapped seams, rolled seams and flat seams.
Lapped have one panel of material laying on another like shingles on a roof and should be avoided, because it is hard to print in the crack.
Rolled seams have a radius to the bends of the panels that butt to each other leaving a crack in between. Rolled seams can be printed with high screen tension, inks that shear easily and a little skill.
Flat seams have the smallest crack and are easy to print. When the material in the seam looks flat like it has been ironed, that is better than a rippled seam. The rolled and flat seams can be printed with ease using high density ink. There is more on printing 6-panel caps further on in this article.
Production Multi-color printing will be slower and should be priced higher to more than produce the profit that would be earned printing one color caps. Four color foam front caps should be printed at 50/hour. Production rates on low profile and golf caps depend on how easy or hard the cap is to handle. Constructed caps are the most difficult.
Production rates are also affected by whether flash curing is required. If you underbase with white or light colored ink on a dark cap to make the next color ink appear brighter, or if you print with multiple colors of high density ink, flashing will be required. Otherwise, print wet-on-wet to speed up production. The flash time required depends on the thickness of the ink deposit. For example, a 150 micron capillary film puts down a thick ink film that is flash cured in 6 seconds using a Jennings cap flash unit. An ink deposit of 450 microns would flash in 12 seconds and full cure in under 20 seconds. A full cure is achieved better by removing the cap from the cap press with the last ink color still wet and putting the cap through a conveyor dryer. Need help? Call R Jennings Mfg. at 518-798-2277 or email at roger@rjennings.com.
What is Different about Printing a Cap The cap frame must have a thin side so that the image can be printed close to the bill of the cap. The image will be exposed close to the thin edge, in fact, as close as 1/16" to the inside of the frame. The thin side is typically 1/8" thick, or should we say thin? Thin means weak. So this side will deflect when tension is applied to the mesh. Therefore, the tension should be taken up from the opposite side of the frame. The best method is a retensionable frame. Two companies make such frames, Diamond Chase and Newman.
If the cap screen does not have tension, the thin side of the frame will allow the mesh to move during printing. Low tension is associated with wooden screens and curved screens which have no measurable tension. The printing experience will be like printing with old wooden shirt screens where ink builds up under the screen, colors may bleed into each other, the ink deposit may be too heavy, etc. A lot of potential problems are avoided by investing in the right tools, and a retensionable screen is basic to cap printing.
Also different about printing a cap, there is not a lot of room to make a mistake locating the image on the cap screen. The simplest way to expose images in the right location every time is to trace the frame on graph paper. Then draw a line 3/16" away and parallel to the thin side of the frame representing the bill support on a Jennings machine. The maximum thickness of a cap bill is 3/16". Then trace the platen on the graph paper by laying the graph paper over the platen with the line resting against the metal bill support on the machine. Now a plastic sheet can be laid over the graph paper and taped down. Each positive can be laid on the plastic and held in position, in registration, with cellophane tape. Last, put two pieces of double stick tape on top of the top positive, and lay a coated screen over the frame drawing to pick up the positive in exactly the right spot on the screen to print where you want it on the platen. Wooden strips affixed to the plastic along two sides of the frame as drawn on the graph paper will allow locating a coated screen by simply butting the screen up against the wood rather than trying to line the screen up to the drawing on the graph paper.
What is the Same as Shirt Printing Really everything. High tension screens produce better printed results. The mesh counts are the same. So, for example, use 110M for white ink on black and for puff inks, 160M for dark inks on light caps, 220M for halftones and 305M for 4-color process.
Capillary film is great for caps and shirts, but less expensive with caps, because so little is used. The cost is about $ .01 per square inch. Capillary film allows overlapping the thin edge of the cap frame so that the stencil thickness is consistent to the bottom of the image, and the stencil will not break down near the thin edge of the screen. Liquid emulsion is no match for capillary film for cap printing. The image resolution is so much better with capillary film, especially with fine detail. And, there are no pin holes since capillary film is applied to a screen wet from running water. Screens are ready much faster, because there is no drying time between degreasing and coating. Capillary film reclaims faster and cleaner than liquid emulsion.
When printing shirts, it is critical that the tension on the shirt be the same in all directions. If a shirt is stretched when loaded on the platen, the image will be distorted. The same is true with caps. Distortion comes from stretching. That is why Jennings got the patents on the side forming members of the platen so that even tension would be developed on a cap to print circles that are round, lines that are straight, and corporate logos that match company stationary. You will not see our competitors taking on the tough challenges printing symmetrical images like the lenticular Jeep image featured in March 1999 Impressions.
6 Panel Caps These can be easy to print. A smooth flat seam helps. High tension screens are a must. High density ink or puff ink is required. You could spike a flat ink with 30-40% puff to get some puff without the high loft of 100% puff. High density ink is not puff. The thickness of the stencil will determine the thickness of the ink deposit, and the ink will leave high resolution, sharp edges to the image. Start with high density ink. You will love the look and ease of printing.
Before you print, you will need two pads about 1/16" thick on the platen spaced apart by the width of the seam in the cap. Jennings sells these pads @ $5 each. The seam can then be laid between the pads so that when the squeegee is drawn across the front panel of the cap there is no "speed bump" or "pot hole" in the road. If the pads selected are not the right thickness to match the thickness of the seam, masking tape in the slot can, for example, build up the slot so that there is no dip in the road of printing.
Loading a Cap First, fold out the sweat band. If there is a half moon stay, fold that out also. Hold them between the thumb and index fingers on either side of the metal bill support and pull the sweat band and half moon stay down into the hole provided between the metal bill support and flat platen. Pull down until the seam between the bill and front panel of the cap is at the same height as the platen surface. Remove your hands from the cap. Resist the temptation to fondle the cap!
Second, push the bill of the cap against the metal bill support by placing your hand at the base of the bill close to the front panel of the cap. This makes sure all caps will be printed with the images parallel to the bill of the cap, and at the same distance from the bill. No other company offers this feature in cap printing, because this is patented.
If this is a 6-panel cap, hold the seam of the cap (while still holding the bill to the metal bill support) and place the seam in the slot between the two pads. It is best to start with the end of the seam closest to the bill. Then spread out the remaining parts of the front panel on to the platen.
If this is a 5 panel cap, the same procedure can be used as used for the 6-panel. However, foam fronts load quicker when simply grabbed on the mesh back by holding the mesh back between the heal of the hand and 4 fingers to pull the cap down evenly. Don't ever stretch a cap! A cap is being stretched when the bill is pulled away from the bill support. Once the cap is in position press the front panel into the mist spray adhesive on the print surface. If the cap is a foam front cap, use the hand that was holding the bill to the metal bill support to press the front panel of the cap down on to the platen where there should be light mist spray adhesive just like shirt printing. Once the adhesive has control of the cap, hands off! Hold the screen from the side, or from the part of the machine that holds the screen, and bring the screen down on the cap to print.
Tips on Setting Up to Print The best quality results from setting up on-contact and printing off-contact. Jennings offers Quick Print (TM) for $25, or you can make your own. You need a piece of plexiglass about 1/8" thick. Lay this on the platen. The adhesive holds the plexiglass in place. Adjust the print head so that the screen is on-contact at all points. The screen itself must be absolutely flat, and flatness can be checked by laying a screen against plate glass like an exposure unit or plate glass door or window. If the frame rocks, it is not flat, and should be adjusted as explained in the Jennings' instructions on retensionable screens.
Positives can be placed on the plexiglass to register the image. The Jennings Quick Print (TM) includes a graph (and other features) like the platen itself which may be covered with adhesive, etc. After the screens are registered on the clean surface of the plexiglass, the Quick Print can be removed. The screen will now be off-contact by the thickness of the plexiglass. If the front panel of the cap is slightly thinner than the thickness of plexiglass selected, there will be minimal off-contact for maximum image quality.
Quick Print beats adjusting the off-contact bolt in the machine, since that bolt will introduce a pitch to the screen. Bad news. Some machines on the market have pitch adjustments to compensate for the pitch created by adjusting the off-contact bolt. Avoid these machines. They are vary labor intensive to try to get all print heads to be exactly the same, and when the job is over, all the print heads have to be adjusted back the way they were. You will spend more time setting up than printing. Just use the plexiglass. It is a simple idea that allows setting up very quickly. We at R Jennings Mfg. are here to help you. You can find us at www.rjennings.com.
Squeegee The best is the aluminum handle with a 70-90-70 blade, or similar durometer. The handle is important, because the bolts go through the handle and not the blade. Bolts that go through a blade will cause the blade to warp over time, and warped blades leave an inconsistent ink thickness. The stiff center, 90, keeps the corners of the polypropolene blade from bending. You will be printing on the corners of the blade. If the corner bends more than the rest of the blade, the corner will release ink differently. These squeegees cost about $20 each complete. Treat yourself to a good squeegee.
Ink If ink is like peanut butter, or one color is stiff and another not as stiff, the ink needs adjustment before being put in the screens. There are two ways to adjust ink. They are soft hand clear, also known by various names like base, extender base, Finesse, and Shape, and curable reducer.
Soft hand clear is simply ink without pigment. So if the ink volume is doubled or tripled by adding soft hand clear, the pigment will be thinned out. You will have to experiment to find out how much soft hand can be added before the color of the ink gets lighter. If you print soft hand alone, of course there is no color, but the ink will print very differently. If you stir soft hand up you will notice it stirs easier than pigmented ink. These favorable characteristics become part of your printing as you are able to add more soft hand to the ink as long as you do not go too far and lose color strength. Soft hand will save you money on ink, too!
The curable reducer is not a thinner, because you will use only 2-4% to the ink. Do not use more than 10%, or the ink may never cure, but it may run all over the customer's wash! Be afraid of too much curable reducer!
What is curable reducer? When you open a can of ink you may have noticed what looks like a film of light oil on top of the ink. That is plasticizer, one of the three ingredients of ink. (The other two are pigment, which is color, and PVC, which is the plastic base that bonds the pigment to the garment when fused with heat). When you stir the ink up in the manufacturer's container, you witness that the ink gets easier to turn. That is because the plasticizer is being absorbed into the PVC. Very little plasticizer at the top of the can being stirred in makes a big difference, and that is why only 2-4% curable reducer will be required. Curable reducer is plasticizer with some PVC added. The PVC gives the curable reducer the white look. The PVC also helps to avoid putting too much plasticizer in the ink.
Curable reducer will reduce the adhesive quality of the ink. The ink shears, or cuts, easier, and therefore will pass through the screen with less pressure applied to the squeegee. When each ink is adjusted so that all inks print equally with the same pressure and squeegee angle, consistency is introduced to printing, and that is important to quality.
Ink should be adjusted also according to the mesh count. A fine mesh like 220 needs an ink that passes through easily while a coarse mesh like 86 needs an ink with body so that the ink holds its shape.
Avoid putting curable reducer in process inks and high density inks. In process inks the shape of the dot may be lost causing dot gain and muddy images. High density inks may not hold their shape if curable reducer is added. There are circumstances when we apply curable reducer to high density inks. See the August 1999 Impressions article on printing on textured fleece for those circumstances.
Printing Procedure Spread 4 fingers over the top side of the squeegee so that even pressure will be applied to the squeegee. Only one hand will be required to print a cap. Start with 45 degrees between the mesh and blade. Draw the squeegee at a consistent angle over the image for a consistent ink deposit. A good way to get this habit is to stand to the side of the cap attachment, lock the wrist at the 45 degree angle, and step back to print. After printing several times using this procedure, you will become sensitive to maintaining a constant squeegee angle. If you do not, you may lift your elbow or drop your should when printing changing the squeegee angle and ink density.
Always hold the screen from the sides, and never from the thin bar, or you will have ink on your hands.
Avoid so much pressure that the squeegee blade bends. Bending the blade changes the squeegee angle, and smashes the ink. We want to cut the ink in a deposit defined by the stencil, and not push the ink through like a squeeze bottle of catsup. If the blade bends, maybe the blade is too soft, or the pressure is too great, or the ink so stiff that pressure seems to be the way to get the ink through the screen.
1. The peak of the cap sticks up making it difficult to make proper contact with the cap to print. Answer: The cap is too small for the platen. Take the tension off of the corners by placing a pad on the platen. The pad should be the size of the image, or slightly larger, but smaller in area than the platen. The pad should be 1/8" to 1/4" thick depending on how bad the problem is. This problem of the peak is associated most often with fused buckram caps. Switch to flexible front caps, half moon stay caps, unstructured caps or foam front caps.
2. The image is distorted. Answer: The cap is being stretched out of shape before printing. See the instructions above about loading the cap.
3. The image is crooked. Answer: You need a Jennings machine with a metal bill support t so that you can push the bill against a constant surface. No other company offers this feature, because it is protected by patents, and we sue infringers. (The score is 13-0).
4. The image has a "smile." Answer: This is a form of stretching a cap out of shape before printing. If you look at how the cap is loaded, you will notice the front panel is down in the slot between the metal bill support and the print surface. You need to have the seam where the front panel of the cap and bill are joined to be above the print surface at the center of the image area and even with the print surface at the extreme ends of the image. That will take the smile out of your image, and put it back on your face where it belongs.
5. Part or all of the image is not sharp, or the ink deposit is heavy in spots. Answer: Poor tension on the screen. Go to retensionable screens.
6. There is an orange peel effect, or rough surface, to the ink. Answer: On-contact printing causes this problem. Use the Quick Print idea. Low mesh tension causes this problem. So go to retensionable screens, if you are serious about your business.
7. Do you have a question I have not answered? Send your question to roger @rjennings.com. Be sure to see the other articles on our web site www.rjennings.com which changes each week.
(C) R Jennings Manufacturing Company, Inc. 2002