Screen Printing Startup Equipment, Part III

This is Part III and the last part of John Levocz' article on what equipment a start-up printer would need.  Read Part I or Part II on our blog or read the entire article in Printwear magazine. OTHER EQUIPMENT There are also nonessential but helpful equipment and ancillary pieces for your new business, such as a homemade or purchased washout booth. Normal water and high-pressure water are used to clean screens. If you use the same booth to wash emulsion and ink from screens, keep it clean. If you make a homemade unit, add back-lighting to view emulsion washout for proper detail. A pressure washer is a nice addition to your washout booth for removing emulsion from screens. Another helpful piece of equipment is some type of heat temperature reader. this can either be temperature tapes, a heat gun, or a thermoprobe. The heat tapes are the least expensive of the three, but heat guns have dropped in price and are now available at a variety of of building supply stores and tool centers. Because curing is such an important factor to screen printing, it's essential to monitor the process daily and on different types of garments. I also recommend a spotting gun. This tool removes cured ink spots that always seem to magically on the finished garment, which usually comes from ink on fingers that touch the shirt. This spotting gun allows you to remove the ink without damaging the shirt. While the above is not an exhaustive list of necessary startup equipment, it gives you a good idea of the most important items to focus on when starting a screen printing business. John Levocz, International Coatings’ Northeast regional sales director, has been in the screen printing industry for more than 30 years and has broad experience in graphics and textile printing. John is a contributor to International Coatings’ blogs and holds print seminars all over the country.