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TIPS & TECHNIQUES
printing a white underbase and printing a full-colour design on
top using the Texjet DTG printer.
“To get an opaque white base you’ve got to put quite a bit of
white ink down where DTG is concerned and that takes time. By
creating one screen and using a discharge white screen ink that
part of it gets done very quickly, and cheaply,” explains Julian.
“What Polyprint has developed is an interchangeable table system
that fits to the screen print press for printing the white underbase,
then clicks out of that system and clicks into the Texjet printer,
which puts the full CMYK print over the top. There is a bracket
on the base of the printer that is identical to the one fitted to the
screen print press, so the boards can switch between the two.
“The only thing to consider is the alignment, because of course
if you’ve got a colour offset from the white then it’s not going to
look good. The way to align it is, initially you print the image with
the registration marks on to a white T-shirt on the Texjet. You then
remove it from the printer on its board, so it’s still on the platen,
put it onto the press, bring down the screen and align it to that
image. You’ve got micro-adjust on the manual stations, so you
can get everything perfect.
“Once that’s done, you put your first black or coloured garment
on, screen print the white, flash cure it, then it comes off the
screen print press, clips on to the printer and full CMYK is printed
over the top.”
HYBRID PRINTING STEP-BY-STEP
Creating the white mask layer in Photoshop for the screen
The finished screen created using the artwork from step 1
The colour design is then loaded and positioned within the DTG Rip Software
The design is printed onto a white garment, including the registration marks
Printer bracket [l] and Screen arm bracket [r]: the platen system uses a custom
screen print arm bracket to replicate the printer arm
The platen holding the white printed garment is then attached to the screen print
arm bracket
www.images-magazine.comFEBRUARY 2017
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