Serigraphy

Textile serigraphy (incorrectly called textile FLOCKING or TEXTILE FLOCKING) is a procedure whereby ink is deposited directly on the textile using the sieve principle (screen, frame or stencil), through which ink is passed using a blade or squeegee.

One frame (sieve) is needed for each print colour visible on the clothing. As example: for a three colour imprint we need three different screens to be able to print in serigraphy on a t-shirt.

This screen (a little like a mosquito net) consists of an aluminium frame over which a woven fabric with a very fine polyester mesh is stretched. To prepare this frame for printing, the fabric is coated with a photosensitive emulsion (a viscous substance that is sensitive to UV rays). Once the frame has been dried so that it is ready for printing, it has to be insulated or exposed to light (transfer of your logo or the colours of your logo). To do this, we also need a film (or template). The film is the transfer of your logo or one of the colours of your logo in opaque black (irrespective of the required print colour) using a printer to a paper or polyester tracing. This film will be placed between the frame (which has until now been kept away from the light) and a very powerful light source. After insolation, the parts exposed to the light are hardened while the unexposed parts (areas of the film) will be removed with water. These correspond to the area of your logo and will let the ink through during printing.

Thanks to new digital techniques, it is possible to print the template directly on the emulsion before insolation or to burn the logo directly into the emulsion, instead of insolation.

The properly prepared screen can now be fitted on the serigraphy machine, the blades (used for printing) and reverse blades (used to return the ink to its initial position) are also installed. The appropriate ink is placed on the screen fabric. The item of clothing to be printed (previously fixed to the board of the machine with a very light layer of adhesive) is placed beneath the frame.

The ink is applied to the textile through the stencil mesh using pressure and the blade so that the patterns appear.

After printing, the textile is removed from the machine and placed on a conveyor belt on which it passes through a long tunnel heated to ±150°.

After approximately three minutes drying time, your item of clothing is ready to wear.

Of course, the entire setting has to be cleaned so that it can be used again for another order.

The stages before printing represent the fixed overheads. They are independent of the price of the printing itself and will be recouped in line with the number of items printed.

The printing price itself varies depending on the type of textile (t-shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, etc.), the number of items, the colour of the textile and the number of colours to be printed.