SCREEN PRINTING Tricks of the trade with screen printing expert, Kes Cracknell, of Ram Promotions Discharge printing explained
Discharge printing is a method that has been around for years but hasn’t been widely used until fairly recently. It’s used on dark and coloured garments and works on 100% cotton.
D
ischarge ink requires an activator to work which then gives it a short shelf life of around eight hours. With a lid on the pot we have managed to keep the ink longer.
By activating the ink, the print will take the garment back to its original colour then by adding coloured pigments you can produce different colours – curing times are longer. You will only see the strength of the colours once the shirt has gone through your curing process. Discharging leaves you with a strong ink colour and a very soft feel to the garments compared to standard plastisol prints.
Although we continue to print using plastisol on our print floor, this is mostly down to the cost and ease of use. We have found in some particular circumstances that discharge really helps get the most out of a design. There are two main ways to use discharge:
Method one
Discharge all the colours, this will allow you to drop the flash/underbase screen (saving costs) which will therefore enable you to print more colours, as you will not need a cooling station. We regularly print 10 colours onto black garments using this method, we are then able to maximise the whole press by using a colour on every head as this method can be printed wet on wet. The finished garment has a super soft feel with strong print colours – great for both the retail and promotional markets. We would be using 48-62 mesh counts most of the time.
Method two
Discharge the underbase with a natural base or add white then print plastisol on top. This again will give the softer feel that a traditional plastisol underbase lacks. We do not always flash off the discharge underbase – again enabling you to print more colours on your press. We tend to use this method ourselves a bit more than the first option. We would use 48-90 mesh counts for this method.
CMYK onto discharge underbase Of late we have been asked to print CMYK onto dark garments. This, of course, used to be a major problem and you never ended up with a great finish. But by discharging the underbase back to natural and then process printing the rest, the end result is really good.
This method is very cost effective and works well in these tighter budget times as converting a process print into spots will always have a higher price tag – more artworking charges, more films more screens inks and so on.
About the author
Kes Cracknell has always been involved in the promotional printing industry and started Ram Promotions in 1994. Ram screen prints garments for promotional, school wear and retail companies. In 2010, Ram expanded its print floor and now prints more than 60,000 garments a week. Ram now decorates garments only for the trade.
ABOVE AND LEFT: Examples of discharge under base printing with plastisol colours.
Typical costs of a process print and the spot conversion CMYK 10 col spot
Seps Films
Screens
£60 £200 £32 £80 £64 £160
1000 print run £450 £650
Discharge key points to remember 1. Works only on 100% cotton. 2. Wash up with water.
3. Once activated, around eight hour shelf life.
4. Flash curing is not always required. 5. Super soft feel, ironable, great wash and dry clean resistance. 6. Wet on wet printablity.
7. Strong colours even on dark garments.
■ For more information or to discuss topics for this column, email: info@ram-
promotions.co.uk, call 01277 366164 or visit
www.ram-promotions.co.uk
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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