Screen printing is a decade old and effective way of creating vibrant artwork. Majorly leveraged in the textile industry, screen printing is a type of printing method that requires background knowledge and practice to make the perfect prints.
But guess what, mistakes tend to happen since it is a giant process needing extra attention. Hence, we have listed out some of the common mistakes you need to avoid or you could lead to a huge loss in money and probably end up harming the brand’s identity.
In a way to avoid mistakes go through the below-mentioned challenges and their solutions.
Displacement of the Substrate
While printing if your substrate is not steady, then the displacement of the substrate can happen which leads to the blurred edges and harms your final print.
Solution: First of all, check the pallets remain steady every time before running the screen printing process.
After checking the pallets, check the gum applied to the substrate to keep it in place. You can also spray additives because it is effortless to apply. If you are printing heavy fabric, you might require an additive to do a screen printing job.
Image Bleeding at its border
Due to passing of excessive ink through the screen and squeegee the bleeding of images takes place. Try to pull the ink once because pulling ink more than once on the screen can lead to bleeding. Also, use the squeegee at 45 degrees to the screen.
You need to take care of the above-mentioned precautions. Let’s discuss their solutions.
Solution: The feasible solution is wiping the excess ink from the screen and squeegee. Run the squeegee again without pouring the ink on the cheap quality paper like a newspaper.
Repeat the process again and again till you find the excess ink on the newspaper. Do it swiftly to avoid the drying of the screen. You might require to pull around 4 times.
Loss of detail
Screen printing might take a longer time as compared to the other process but it is ideal for items that are high in number. Sometimes it can be burdensome when intricate stencil details are not coming out of the run.
Solution: Due to the loosening of the screen mesh can shift during the printing. A screen tension meter is a very valuable tool to check the screen before every printing job. When the screen tension meter is too low, the chances of mesh being shifted is more which will lead to blurriness and the loss of detail.
However, if you want glorious print every single time without going wrong, then it might be that screen printing isn’t for you because it is unpredictable.
Image stick to the back of screen print
You might face this challenge when the size of your printing area and the paper is the same or you have extended the ink over the large area. Due to this sometimes the image sticks to the backside of the paper.
Solution: To secure this issue, you must use the larger paper and ensure the pulling out of paper before it floods on the screen. Use a newsprint over the exposed air holes if you are using the vacuum beds, this will focus the air to your print area and grasp the paper to its place.
Ink issues
Immediate drying of the ink after printing affects your print quality. Immediate-drying happens when adding too much ink. It also happens when you quit the screen dry between the print instead of flooding.
Solution: You must add small amounts of retarder, to lower the risk of drying of ink on the screen.
Many brands ensure the ink to be print-ready, few of them are true. To be on the safe side you should follow the below solution.
Solution: You should blend the additive to the ink to make it thin and appropriate for the printing job. These additives thin your ink and thus lets the ink to bleed outside the boundaries of your stencil. This fixes poor ink viscosity issues.
Picking up the wrong shade or color
Color is a significant aspect when it comes to printing, but choosing the right color is very crucial. Many individuals face this flaw. The color of print was completely different than it was looking on the digital screen. Because the monitor uses the RGB profiles which are very vibrant but the printing process uses CMYK profiles which drops the tone of the image.
Solution: Firstly, you should try to avoid printing color from the monitor instead make use of “Pantone Swatch Book” which has the specific print colors
Along with that, you can use the “Color Bridge Pantone Book” which gives a side by side preview of CMYK.
Fix stencil problems
If you have fixed all the issues above and still facing a problem, then do have a look at your stencils. If your amalgamation wasn’t properly exposed, the edges of the stencil may weaken during printing.
Too thin amalgamation does not extend over the screen appropriately which causes the blocks on the edges of your screen print.
Final Words
To generate good quality prints screen printing requires high skills. As a print business owner, whether you have an online store with Product Designer Tool or a simple shop, you have to research for better printed products. This article covers most of the common screen printing issues and their solutions. Hope this helps you in rolling out the better quality print.
Author Bio: Mr. Pratik Shah is Creative Head of Brush Your Ideas, a Web-to-Print technology solution offering custom Product design tool and Web-to-Print Storefront Solutions. He has been giving his valuable tips and suggestion about Product Designer Tool.
