Screen Printing FLEECE – 11 Tips
Screen printing on fleece is not always easy, but if we follow some basic rules, it will be easy to handle, and you will not make any more misprints. Here we have 11 tips to help you with screen printing on the fleece.
#1 Lint Pick up Screen
On fleece, we have a lot of fluff that must be removed before printing. For automatic printing machines, we use a lint pick-up screen. We spray some table gum on a Teflon sheet.
Put it under the first print head screen and print with a roller squeegee. The lint sticks to the screen, and your printing area is lint-free.
#2 Lay down the Fluff
On Fleece, we sometimes have some fluff, with a Roller Squeegee you will be able to lay it down, but furthermore, you will press your Fleece on the pallet, what will improve your registration. A Roller Squeegee should always be used by printing fleece.
#3 Transparent layer of ink
Lay down a transparent layer of ink, to keep the fluff down.
#4 Proper mesh choice
Proper Mesh choice is important for Fleece, as you need to get a good amount of ink down, think about S type mesh for the under-base. As it has a bigger mesh opening.
#5 Reduced pressure
To keep a better registration, reduce the pressure on the squeegee, on the automatic printing machine.
#6 Polyester
If you have an amount (%) of Polyester in the Garment, pre-shrink it first. Just past in your dryer once first before printing.
#7 Stokes used
Please limit the number of squeegee stokes used, don’t double stroke everything, keep it simple and use few strokes as possible.
#8 Paint-roller
Use a Paint Roller to deposit the table gum; you need a lot of it!
#9 Pallet tape
Use Pallet tape, as it absorbs the water from table gum and gives the table gum a better grip and it helps that the table gum does not stick to the garment.
#10 Avoid flash
Use your flash cure, as little as possible, helps keeping registration and you Fleece does not shrink and prevent against migration.
#11 Blocker/anti migration
Use a Blocker/anti-migration Ink as Under Base, to prevent migration problems. Use an under-base like PRINTPERFEKT AM 1.
Summary:
These 11 Tips will help you to control screen print on Fleece, easy!
It’s great that you mentioned reducing the pressure on the squeegee for better registration on the quality of the print. I plan on creating a screen-printing business in town since I have always been doing it for years. I’ll take note of these tips when I start my business. Thanks!