advice needed for setting up screen printing for signs

[Glenn Sharp]

Mo,

Lots of things to take into consideration.

Printing onto correx would mean using solvent inks (you could use UV but curing them would be expensive)….storing Solvent Inks and their thinners and retarders etc is somthing to think about.

You’d need somewhere to produce the stencils….an exposure unit and a washout booth

You’d need somewhere to dry the stencils

You’d need a print bench and somewhere to put it…I’d say you’d need a space about 8ft square at least and then somewhere to dry the prints

I’m not sure of how much all this would cost to set up from scratch but from what you’ve described I would genuinely be thinking about investing in another solvent printer….set it away, walk away and stick the prints as required

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Thanks for that, space isn’t really an issue as we work from a large workshop, and we have solvent storage and wast collection… but food for thought, is there a printer set up that could print direct to correx and foamboard?

I was also thinking of production costs as the cartridges for solvent printers are horrendously expensive and only lay down a thin layer of ink, so the screen printed products would be more durable…. I like to produce quality stuff so that people keep coming back.

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Just looked at flatbed solvent printers…… ok if you have another £15k + to spend……. show me the screens!

[Glenn Sharp]

Have a chat with Scott…..he’s the one pictured

http://www.sseworldwide.co.uk/

[Chris Rundle]

I would sub contract! from what ive seen its a messy process compared to digital printing! pm me if you would like me to tell you who i use to do many safety signs at good prices!

[John Gregson]

For me I’d keep it digital, when screen printing each colour would have to have its own screen and each colour printed individually. If you have a lot of different signs, with a few different colours on each sign – that’s one hell of a lot of screens to keep.

You’d need a decent 60" x 40" or 40" x 30" hand bench, similar sized exposure unit, similar sized racks for drying and similar sized wash out booths for setting up the screens. You’d need to be able to produce large possi’s or acetates for setting up the stencils and you’d also need somewhere dark to coat and store your unexposed screens. Ink cabinets, solvent cabinets, screen wash recycling unit for washing screens – the list is endless.

Printing correx day in day out and you may also need extraction facililities too, ink may have come on a little since I used to print estate boards but this ink used to stink – alot.

You’d also need to employ a screen printer – it may look easy on youtube but try it yourself and after the walls and floor are dripping ink you’ll be down the job centre looking for a decent screen printer.

For 15K i’d get a digital flat bed and get rid of all my screen print gear – its a dying trade!

Good luck – Cheers John

[Andrew Martin]

I have had experience in printing correx at my last job
If the print is just one colour then screen printing maybe the way to go.

The outlay need not be expensive, you can self build most of the main equipment like the print bench, i would recommend using an aluminum pre stretched screen with a fairly tight mesh count… these can be obtained from R.A Smart, as for ink Sericol does one for correx called "corripol".

Stencils are easily made using autotype amber film and can be cut on your plotter/printer machine and this is applied to the screen using nothing more than a damp rag then dried using a normal heater.

you could also make the screen with a photographic emulsion but this is an expensive option and mostly used in long print runs.

You would of course need a drying rack to store the prints to dry or if you have the room prop them up against the wall or something… just make sure its a dust fee area though

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Thanks Andy, that’s possibly where I was thinking, i may have to move to 3 colour at some point, I have drying racks so that’s not an issue and I would probably be doing long runs of 50 + at a time.

I’m still looking, I can’t afford the digital print machines for this and leasing would just push my fixed costs up….

I have about 1k to set up a small screen set up, if anyone knows where i could get a machine that I could do A1 size on please let me know

[John Gregson]

You’ll get a decent 40" x 30" hand bench on fleebay for approx: £400 – £600, don’t bother with hand made efforts – you’ll regret it.

Look for a hand bench with a working vacuum, no deep marks on the surface – kippax or marler are good makes. Two on fleebay under screen printing.

[Colin Aburrow]

If most of your signs are repeat reprints you could also get a screen-printer that has the screen-making setup make screens for you and just reuse. We used to have a guy that used to do this sort of thing but used to get us to make the screens for him so just ink & handbench needed. But if you want to do it all in-house then I think you will need a bigger budget. As said already screen-printing is a dying industry with all the digital machines out there.

Colin

[Denise Goodfellow]

I`m sorry I don`t agree that screen printing is a dying art.

You are correct when you mention Strong smells, solvents etc.

But a single colour print is 1 stroke of the squeegee. If you print table is 40" x 30" depending upon the size of the design, you could be printing 100`s stickers every 15 seconds. 10,000 stickers in an hour. Not many machines can do that.

Screen printing is very fast, we only have a small vacuum bed that fits onto a t shirt machine, we print correx signs for lamp posts, printing 120 per hour quite easily.

Horses for courses. There’s lots of ifs and buts. For us, we make screens most days, so it does`nt throw us out to make a screen for stickers/signs.

[John Gregson]

10.000 x 1 colour stickers – who buys 10K x 1 colour stickers these days – its all full colour. Been in the trade for nearly 30 years, used to print all Greggs the bakers stuff, Northern Rock etc – all gone digital now due to full colour requirements.

Its definitely a dying trade, I’ve watched it die over the years – still run a printers now but have got machines lying dormant – not good!

[Ian Pople]

Hi all,

Looking into screen printing for T Shirts ect. I have found the customer tends to melt the cut vinyl so for single colors was thinking of screen printing. Will be using the cutter for the mask.

Please could someone list suppliers for ink ect.

Thanks

Ian

[Gert du Preez]

Mo,

I’m with Andrew on this one. My training was in screenprinting, but it’s been 10 years since I used it to make a sticker or sign. Yes, I do believe screenprinting is as valid as Betamax tapes these days……

I also do a lot of safety signage – my clients and their contractors produce a full 15% of the world’s uranium, so you can imagine there is quite a bit of these signs to produce…..

I print on Vinyl, and apply to 1mm, 2mm ABS or Chromadek metal, as the client requires. I normally print extras of the popular signs (No smoking, hard hat etc) and just store the vinyls. (Also, whenever there is a blank spot on other vinyl prints, I fill it with safety signs.)

Use your digital printer – maybe get a take up roller if you dont have one. Then you can print un-attended, as well as kill down time on the printer. If volumes really justify it, get a flat bed.

I’m also looking at a flat bed, but these things are way more expensive here than in Europe, and we sell the signs for a lot less money, so the equation becomes a bit different for us….

[John Penkman]

quote Ian Pople:

Hi all,

Looking into screen printing for T Shirts ect. I have found the customer tends to melt the cut vinyl so for single colors was thinking of screen printing. Will be using the cutter for the mask.

Please could someone list suppliers for ink ect.

Thanks

Ian

Hi Ian,

Quite a few options for you on suppliers, Sericol, Screen Colour Systems, Colenso, Screen Inks and Solvents are the ones I’ve had experiance of using, but if you google it you’ll find plenty of different suppliers other than these aswell.

Any of these companies will be able to supply you with the full range of inks, acids, thinners, emulsions etc that you’ll need. All offer slightly different inks (plastisols) and all differ in price.

Cheers
John

[David Rowland]

having been in the position of being a screen printer which is where I learnt most of the trade, then going thru and see how we apply vinyls and doing the solvent printers route for many years and now have a large format UV printer, this puts me in a position where I can answer some of the questions.

1: Chrona treatment, the (UV) ink onto a correx sheet may not adhere, your correx stock needs to be as fresh as possible.
2: Scratch resistance, Screen printing inks are strong especially as their is ink suited just for Correx, if I recall it stinks ! The estate agent work is normally done this way, the ink in a UV printer is designed for many surfaces.
3: Static is enemy with any motion over a sheet, espeically Correx, when a print head passes over a charged surface, it can fire ink and it will end up on the bottom of the print head and not on the surface. Ionisers that fire negative charges onto the material surface are normally on each side of the print head, this will try and nutrealise the surface ready for printing.
4: Solvent based flatbed have been developed, but a machine supplier will more keen for you to invest in solvent. Especially as UV is a less of a headache.
5: UV Flatbed printing, is not as cheap as they tell you, the secret is too keep busy and then you make money.
6: Surfaces needs to be wiped with priming agents if they are to last, this will help the surface tension of the material with the ink.
7: You got to keep heat under control with flatbed materials, head strikes could be the problem.

A single (or few) colours print is best done on a screen bench, at this stage I would consider it as NOT a die trade, it is much cheaper overall if you are doing the same print over and over again, but regular or production work then a printer like our Anapurna M2050 is very quick indeed, but its a big outlay and you got to keep it in production.

I hope that gives an insight to UV printing

[Martin Oxenham]

Just farm it out to a screen printer…..Just supply the artwork ready to go and let them have the hassle. We use Humphries for correx signs.

[Ian Pople]

thanks for the info John.

Ian

[Martin Pearson]

Ian, I think you are going to find this quite an expensive way of doing things if you are looking at one off T shirts. Screen printing really comes into it’s own when you have large volumes to do.

[Ian Pople]

Hi,

I think screen printing one color for the party people would be a lot easier than cut vinyl. Day-glow pink ink hen party’s.

Cut the design one time and apply to t shirts.

The cost of cut vinyl per shirt and screen print come out to about the same price.

Set up costs for screen printing one color as I have the cutter would be under £150.

Ian

[John Gregson]

Ian, it takes longer to screen print as you’d have to mask it out, get the right position etc and tbh I cannot understand why you’d want to if you are already cutting the image.

Buy some dayglo flex, cut it on plotter and heat press it onto the t shirt direct. simples.

[Ian Pople]

That’s what I’m doing now just seems quicker if you cut it one time mask and then apply it to several t shirts.

Ian

[John Gregson]

It may be worth a go, but personally, I wouldn’t put a screen on the bench/carousel for any qty under 50 prints.

[Neil Speirs]

Stick with vinyl Ian, screen printing garment ain’t that easy….been there, done it & no got the T-shirt 😕

[Gert du Preez]

What I used to do on one-offs is to cut the design (not mirror) in ordinary vinyl, apply to shirt, heatpress, then roller the textile ink with a sponge roller.

Hair dryer to dry, remove vinyl, and heatpress again to set the ink.

Sound worse than it is. And you can use vinyl spoiled on the printer for mask cutting.

I used to do T-shirts from home, and took all the spoiled prints from my then employer home to do this.

Even now I sometimes use it to put numbers on sports jerseys etc.