These pro’s who do design work for Harley Davidson present a very valuable video series on their simulated process color separation techniques. These are some of the best tutorials that i’ve seen . . .

Watch the videos . . .

http://www.iccink.com/phthalates.htm

“PHTHALATES – FACT SHEET

International Coatings Product Compliance
Unless otherwise specified, all International Coatings standard ink product formulas manufactured after January 1, 2009 now comply with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CSPIA) regarding lead and phthalate content and the Consumer Product Safety Act, Title 16 CFR Part 1303, regarding restrictions on heavy metals.*

Introduction and Phthalate Information Sources
International Coatings recognizes that there is considerable interest in the new CSPIA regulations, particularly as they apply to phthalates and how they affect the apparel screen printing industry.  The following information provides an overview of what phthalates are, in what and how they are used, why they are of concern and what is meant by being ‘phthalate compliant’.  Much of the information in this fact sheet comes from the Phthalate Esters Panel and the Phthalate Information Centre Europe.  You can access these organizations and learn more about phthalates by visiting their web sites - www.phthalates.org (Phthalate Ester Panel) and www.phthalates.com (Phthalate Information Centre Europe).

What are Phthalates?
Phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are organic chemicals derived from oil.  They are the most commonly used plasticizers in the world.  Phthalates have been in use for about 50 years, primarily to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) soft and flexible.  Phthalates look like clear vegetable oil and have little or no smell. The benefits they bring to products include not just flexibility, but durability, longevity and low cost.
Phthalates are always incorporated with other materials into an end product.  They are most commonly blended with PVC resins, pigments and additives to produce everything from textile screen print inks, to PVC flooring and cable sheathing, to life-saving medical devices.  Not all phthalates are used as plasticizers for PVC.  Phthalates keep nail polish from chipping, make perfume linger longer, or make tool handles strong and more resistant to breaking. Others are used to enhance the performance of many other materials, including adhesives, sealants, and paint pigments.

Types of Phthalates
Phthalate esters are by far the most widely produced plasticizers worldwide. Both ortho-phthalate and terephthalate acids can be reacted with an alcohol to produce phthalate esters, which may be used as plasticizers. In practice, terephthalates are more commonly used in the USA than elsewhere.
Phthalate esters are manufactured from alcohols such as methanol and ethanol (C1/C2) up to iso-decanol (C13), either as a straight chain molecule or with some branching. This large variety of phthalate molecules provides a wide range of different properties for different uses.

Health and Environmental Effects
Because phthalates are so widely used, they have undergone extensive testing for possible health and environmental effects.  They are among the most widely researched of all chemical substances. Research findings and current assessments of the health and environmental effects of phthalates indicate that they do not pose a conclusive risk to human health or the environment.
Phthalates do not persist in the environment; they biodegrade readily. They do not accumulate in animals or humans; inside the body, they break down quickly and are excreted. Most importantly, in their long history of use, there is not one known case of them ever having caused anyone any demonstrable harm. To the contrary, they are important and often unique components of many of today’s life saving medical devices.
So why are phthalates of concern?  Despite its long record of successful use, some issues have been raised in recent years about possible human health effects. These are based on results of studies that showed some adverse health effects in rodents, at much higher exposures than normally would be encountered by people.  Most attention has centered on ortho-phthalates and the finding that high doses of some of these phthalates can interfere with normal sexual development in male rodents. Sexual development in rodents happens rapidly and shortly before birth. High doses of some phthalates administered to pregnant rats shortly before they gave birth suppressed levels of testosterone, a male hormone key to sexual development in the male fetuses, and interfered with the development of male reproductive organs. However, there were also lower doses at which there were no effects, and even these “no effect doses” were far above those that any human being would be exposed to under any realistic scenario.
The major phthalates in commerce today have not been shown to interfere with or mimic either the estrogen or androgen receptors when tested in laboratory animals. That is, they neither activate the male or female hormone receptors nor prevent activation by natural hormones.
To learn more about the health and environmental effects of phthalates, visit www.phthalates.org.  Links are provided on the site to more detailed discussions, government reports, industry filings with regulatory agencies, and other relevant Web sites.

Phthalate Compliance
Over the past several years, a number of federal, state and international laws have been enacted that restrict the use of certain ortho-phthalates.  These laws target toys and certain child care articles used by infants and children.  There is some question as to whether and how these laws apply to children’s clothing, in particular clothing printed with plastisol textile inks containing phthalate plasticizers.  To minimize uncertainty, several major retailers have decided to require compliance of all textile articles to the new phthalate restrictions.

What is required to be ‘Phthalate Compliant’?

Products comply if they do not contain more than 0.1% of any of the six phthalates restricted or banned by the new state and federal laws.  These six phthalates are:
DEHP (Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate)
DBP (Dibutyl phthalate)
BBP (Benzyl butyl phthalate)
DINP (Di-isononyl phthalate)
DIDP (Di-isodecyl phthalate)
DnOP (Di-n-octyl phthalate)
To be clear, the laws do not restrict or ban the use of all phthalates, just the six named above.  In fact, only three of the six phthalates above are banned by the federal government unconditionally – DEHP, DBP, BBP.  Use of the other three is restricted on an interim basis pending further scientific investigation.

What are ‘Phthalate-Free’ inks?
Phthalate-Free inks or compounds do not contain phthalate based plasticizers.

What are PVC-Free & Phthalate-Free inks?
These are inks or compounds that do not contain PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) resins or phthalate based plasticizers.

* International Coatings standard ink products contain less than 90 ppm by weight of lead.   Unless otherwise specified, International Coatings standard ink products are no longer formulated with the following six restricted phthalates nor are they intentionally added to these inks as part of the manufacturing process: DEHP (Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate), DBP (Dibutyl phthalate), BBP (Benzyl butyl phthalate), DINP (Di-isononyl phthalate), DIDP (Di-isodecyl phthalate), and DnOP (Di-n-octyl phthalate).

The information provided is believed to be accurate based on the scientific data supplied to International Coatings by its suppliers and is presented in good faith. The information presented is intended only as a source of information and given without guarantee and does not constitute a warranty.  Since the conditions under which this information may be applied are beyond its control, International Coatings can assume no liability for the result of the application.  It is incumbent upon the users of International Coatings products to satisfy themselves that any end products derived meet all applicable regulatory requirements since International Coatings does not control the handling, processing or final use of the above products.  Users should also independently determine, prior to use, the suitability of International Coatings products for their specific applications.  No warranty, expressed or implied is given.”

This is our holiday schedule in our terms:

HOLIDAYS: Forward Printing offers its eligible full-time regular employees 9 paid holidays each calendar year. These holidays are not working days for us so please consider this in regards to turnaround time and rush charges.

New Year’s Day
President’s Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day
the day after Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day
the day after Christmas

These are the actual dates we will be operating around this year:

We will print as usual until Wednesday, November 25th.  We will be closed Thursday, November 26th until Sunday, November 29th.  We will reopen on Monday, November 30th and operate as usual until Thursday, December 24th.

We will close at 1pm PST on Thursday, December 24th.  The shop will be “closed” and not producing for the week following Christmas until after New Years.  Since New Years Day falls on Friday, January 1st, 2010, which is a paid holiday, we will remain closed until Sunday, January 3rd, 2010, and reopen for regular business on Monday, January 4th.

This seems like a long time, but owners and some administration will be in offices for some hours during the week following Christmas.  We will answer as many emails and return as many phone calls as we can during that time.  We may even do some printing, but our paid employees have the time off to spend with their families.

Thanks for all of your business in 2009, we hope to keep you happy for many years to come.  Best wishes to everyone, and have wonderful holidays…

We took first place in the “Eco Friendlier Screen Printing” category for our promo shirt we call “More Fire.”  Many of you have these as they were a production run of 340 pieces for giveaway, promo, and to ship to our customers across the country for samples of what we can do with water based inks.

Prototype "More Fire" colorway

The image above is the prototype and our favorite colorway of this design.  This is just the mock up, but we also printed a bunch of this asphalt colorway.  Just below is the shirt that actually one the first place award, printed on a natural colored organic t shirt.

Pictures of the other winning shirt and some text about it is below, read on…

Eco Fire

We also took second place in the “Most Creative use of a Screen Printed Logo” category for our “Foil Madness” design.  This one is a high density print, and it stands nearly 1/8″ off of the shirt.  It was printed with clear gel and different colors of foil.  It is 18 hits (prints) through the same high density screen.  We placed different colors of patchy and random foil between each layer of ink, so there is foil on the bottom of the print and just under the top coat of the print.  When you look at the print at an angle or from the side, you can actually see the edges of the different colors of foil and their depth within the ink.  Once cured, the clear gloss gel is super glossy, almost mirror like…  This is not a shirt that too many people would actually be comfortable wearing, but it sure is neat, at least to us screen printing nerds…

Foil Madness

]]> http://forwardprinting.com/blog/award-winning-screen-printing-3-years-running/feed/ http://forwardprinting.com/blog/cheap-prices-arent-always-the-best-option/ http://forwardprinting.com/blog/cheap-prices-arent-always-the-best-option/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:06:22 +0000 admin http://forwardprinting.com/blog/cheap-prices-arent-always-the-best-option/ What do businesses do during a recession? Try to stay in business.

On of the first tactics we see is shops trying to print as cheaply as possible in an attempt to get the price sensitive customers. This is all well and good in a free market, but who suffers from underpricing? I think both the shop and the customer will pay the price for underpricing.

1) the shop - They cut their prices. Now they need to bring in a lot more of these low margin jobs just in order to pay the bills. They cannot afford highly experienced press operators. They have to work quickly to get these jobs out the door and onto the next print so they may cut corners and miss some quality issues. What happens when they mess up a large volume job? Having to replace 50,000 shirts could easily put a number of shops out of business.

2) the customer - When going for the cheapest price, customers will likely be prepared for prints that are inferior quality, but they may not be prepared to see that their shirts look like garbage when they arrive. Their brand identity suffers and they lose customers. If they decide to complain and ask for a refund or reprint, it may just not happen with the price-slashing shops. With such low margins they just can’t afford to be accountable.

It is so cliche, but in this industry you really get what you pay for. . .

Forward Printing Press Kit

Millionaires full shirt

Millionaires at an artsy angle

Keep reading below the pictures here.  This shirt seems like it was designed by a screen printer.  The separations were pretty easy and quick and there are aspects to the design that not only make it print friendly, but also make it look really, really good…

In the shot below check out the detail in the money and the car, which is printed with just white ink.  We use Rutland WB99 water based inks and mixing system.  Most of our water base prints these days are through a 230 mesh screen which allows enough ink to pass through the screen and penetrate the shirt like it should.  Printing through the 230 also allows us to maintain some excellent detail and halftones.

Look at the drop shadow behind the shiny foil print around the word “Millionaires.”  It’s a soft blend of white and black that adds serious depth to the foil print and makes it seem like it is standing off of the shirt - it really pops…

Millionaires foiled

Millionaires 2010

We were also impressed at the way “Seniors,” and “10″ stand out of the word “Millionaires.”  This Senior class of 2010 was blessed with a creative designer with some great ideas, and now they have an awesome shirt to rock through their last year of high school…

And just below is one more picture for good measure so you can see just how much the foil shines, and how the drop shadow makes it appear to jump off the shirt…  We’re loving this one!

T-Shirt Forums Foil Print

We recently wrote an article (thanks to Deborah Sexton for the help!) on the best ways to print with foil. This is more of an educational article for other screenprinters that we wrote for Impressions Magazine, though it may give designers more insight into the best ways to design foil prints. It took a lot of trial and error to get great looking foil prints so we hope this info helps somebody out.

Read the article here: Impressions Magazine : Foil Adds Sparkle and Margin

The design work is what I like the best - The smaller details in the design like the dude sitting backward on the bull (which is Calexico NYC’s logo), the butcher knives, chicken and pig, (they specialize in Carne Asada) and the larger feeling of the design with the spade and the skull.  At first it just looks cool, but once you know a little more about the company, you can identify just how much it jives with what they do.  Check out the site and learn how these 4 brothers from Calexico, CA moved to New York City and started their successful street food cart operation, won something called the “Vendy Award” and are opening a brick and mortar location.  Inspiring…