Design for Performance Fabrics

Here's a quick printing tip from Kieth Stevens that was published recently in Printwear Magazine:

Many performance fabrics are slick to the touch and tend to slip and move during printing. Of course, adhering the fabric to the platen well is a must, but the flip side of that is that the fabric will get stretched too much when taking it off the platen and thus may distort the design.

Choose a design with less colors and less registration requirements when dealing with slippery fabrics and one that is more forgiving when distorted slightly.

There are newer inks on the market (such as International Coatings' 7100 Performance Pro™ line) formulated specifically for performance fabrics that have stretch, low-bleed, low cure and durability characteristics. These inks make it easier to print on hard-to-manage substrates and will help the printer create a great print.

Kieth Stevens is the Western regional sales manager for International Coatings. He has been teaching screen printing for more than 10 years and is a regular contributor to International Coatings’ blogs. For more ink tips and information, visit iccink.com.

International Coatings manufactures a complete line of phthalate-compliant screen printing inks, including a wide variety of whites, specialty inks, special effects inks, color matching systems, additives and reducers.  For more information on our products, please visit our website at www.iccink.com.