Mysteries of textile screen printers in India

After my long technical vacation I am back with full confidence and enthusiasm to share some of my insights, views and opinions about the direct-to-garment screen printing industry which I experienced from my last workshop and our companies participation in two exhibitions – GTE 12, New Delhi and KnitWorld, Ludhiana.

GTE 12 – New Delhi

Knit World – Ludhiana

But first I would start from where I left…

THE LAUNCH PARTY…

The launching of Grafica’s nano-prinTex was a full house with more than 150 invitees from garment screen printing industry across India …

The event began with my welcome speech, product presentation, live demo followed by cocktail-dinner. Apart from textile screen printers I had also invited DMI’s Sponsors, our dealers and distributors, industry associates and existing Grafica customers. I was really thankful to all those who attended this event and a special thanks to all our distributors, dealers for their supports. My special thanks to DMI’s sponsors (Sericol, Skyscreen, Colors, Technova, Adobe & Indian Dyes and Sales Corporation).

Upon my request Anil Brahmbhatt (Skyscreen), Raghav Rao (Sericol), Mustafa Kapadia (Colors) and Jayesh Shah (IDSC) openly shared the kind of benefits they are deriving from sponsoring their products and services to DMI.

After my presentation live demonstration of nano-prinTex was arranged in the factory…

Following the launch of nano-prinTex, we were flooded with requests from many garment screen printers to conduct an exclusive workshop on direct-to-garment textile screen printing. I was eager to announce my first 3-day workshop on direct-to-garment screen printing at DMI. Finally this workshop was successfully concluded on 5,6, 7 April 2012. Due to this unexpected scheduling of the workshop, I really had very limited time because there was too much of reading and meeting with experts, garment screen printers, ink suppliers to understand what sort of difficulties each one is facing related to their products and services so that all those issues could be covered in my theory and practical.

Screen printing is not a new subject for me but refreshing my knowledge in textile printing within a very short time was a big challenge. In fact my experience and knowledge in screen printing began with Industrial screen printing and thereafter I learnt many new tricks of process color graphics screen printing. That’s the reason why I found textile screen printing too easy for me to understand, because the only technology which changes apart from artwork, screen making and press parameters was inks and substrates i.e. fabrics. So my main focus all the time was to spend most of my time in understanding the chemistry of inks and the behavior of inks on the fabrics. I spend most of my time in DMI to standardize the process of inks, mesh count and press parameters to achieve consistent result.

Considering the high level of quality standards required in Industrial screen printing (e.g. PCB’s, Automotive Decals & Dials, Graphic overlays, Membrane keys, Glass and Ceramics etc.) and even in process colors graphics, especially in areas like screen making, pre-press and screen printing is much challenging and different in these segments as compared to garments / textile screen printing. That’s the reason why I do not compromise on printing quality.

In the last two exhibitions and in my first workshop I was surprised to hear from many big players in textile printing that they are not aware about the mesh count they use nor they knew anything about types of fabrics like Nylon or Polyester. When I asked them what mesh count they use few of them replied by saying 18 no. mesh or 20 no. mesh. When I explained that we use 77T or 90T or 120T they were confused???… Even when I asked the same question in my first exclusive textile workshop, the same answers came from the participants albeit with same confusion about mesh.

 

And, Dual-Cure Photopolymer emulsion remains a mystery… :
If I compare the level of understanding about emulsions, mesh count etc. between graphics / Industrial screen printing with textile screen printer, I personally feel that percentagewise, garment screen printers have less knowledge and understanding about screen making compare to industrial and graphics screen printers. I was really concerned that many printers use butter paper (tracing paper) to make positives in A3 size for a 12 color job. Often, few so called ‘intelligent garment printers’ ask me about the registration accuracy of nano-prinTex and my answer to them was to first check the accuracy of your positives with each colors before you want to know the accuracy… Butter paper hhmm..

 

This clearly makes me understand that at DMI, I have to focus more on screen making parameters to explain the importance of screen than just printing. Because the screen is the heart of screen printing, GOOD SCREEN = GOOD PRINTING.

World’s first exclusive workshop for 3 days on garment screen printing…
Complete new slides with new contents, theory and practicals. All new pre-press parameters and screen making techniques…quite challenging but was easy due to our years’ of experience and expertise.

   

On the first day I completely spent on pre-press, process color screen printing, artwork, separation techniques, positive linearization and press linearization techniques, and on second day I focused on Spot Process Techniques printing on white and dark garment. On the last day we printed with Special effects and water based inks on dark using metallic, glitter, puff, high density etc…

Participants:
This time we had couple of participants from nearby countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and many far distant places across India. To me one of the interesting participants who came all the way from Ludhiana was Mr. Ashok Jain of Miniking Knitwears Pvt. Ltd., one of the biggest and reputed garment manufacturers in the northern region. He came along with his son and two of his key production people. Being an owner he showed keen interest and enthusiasm to learn various techniques we demonstrated at DMI all three days. Very few owners like him take interest to learn technology with so much patience and very few owners send their people to learn. Most of them are afraid of teaching or sending their people outside to learn. Such printers have very conservative approach towards growth. I think teaching and training is an ongoing process and should be taken in a broader prospective if companies want grow their business. Towards this objective, Mr. Ashok Jain’s approach was very much positive because he told me that, “the company is being run by people and everyone in the company should be aware of the right process and technology to progress and it’s they who handle day to day problems and what I want is results”.

Like him there were many CEO’s, MD’s from reputed companies who took keen interest by participating in my workshop.

But, I urge all CEO’s, Owners, MD’s in garment/garment screen printing industry to also send their printers, managers, supervisors, graphic designers to DMI to learn correct process so that they can deliver quality output and you can reduce your day to day involvement in production and quality issues.

I remember that from the moment we announced our first workshop, within 15 days it was houseful. There were many wait listed participants who will get the chance for the next workshop. This shows the eagerness of textile screen printers. I wonder why there is not many institutes like DMI in the world to teach proper technology in screen printing.

I have incorporated many new and improved contents based on my first experience and requirements of screen printers at large. This time we will be screen printing process color using plastisol and water based inks. We also plan to demonstrate discharge ink on dark garments and special effects using water based and plastisol inks. Inks like metallics and glitters will also be included in few designs to demonstrate how to make attractive garments.

DMI Sponsors…
DMI sponsors have always shown their keen interest to support all my workshops but this time I would like to specially thank Jayesh Shah of IDSC, Raghav Rao of SERICOL & Mr. Konkane & Mr. Kamat of PIDILITE. In fact Mr. Kamat was keen to deliver his technical presentation on water based ink, pigments and on green environment. IDSC have supplied all plastisol inks for Spot Process on dark garments and SERICOL have supplied PVC-PHTHALATE free Plastisol Inks, Water Based Process Color Inks. PIDILITE have supplied their water based medium, binder and various pigments to make our own colors and some special discharge pigments to demonstrate discharge printing. They also included one magical water based ink which can be directly printed on any dark garments without under base white or discharge, still it can achieve bright colors.

In our next workshop we will refine our technique with great improvements to get the best result out of all these varieties of inks and chemicals.

DMI Students…
I specially thank all my students and DMI faculty members who worked day and night with me. These boys were so curious and enthusiastic. That’s the reason why I could also work non-stop along with them without getting tired.

There are many surprises for garment printers coming soon…

So be in touch with us. After my second textile workshop which is scheduled on 17-18-19 May 2012 I shall announce in my blog about further exciting developments.

If you have not registered for the next workshop, then what are you waiting for, just log on to http://www.graficaindia.com today and reserve your seats.

Meanwhile, thanks DAWN HOHL of Uncommon Enterprises LLC, USA for sending many tips and technical information on water based discharge inks and many other parameters related to garment screen printing. DAWN has always been very cooperative since the inception of DMI and very few technical experts like her would share their information with others.

Thanks DAWN for your continued support…

Then, thanks to MARK COUDRAY of TShirtSuccess,LLC, USA (www.coudray.com) for helping me with solutions to my queries related to mesh selection, inks many other factors related to garments. In fact he was so much supportive that whenever I asked him any questions he gave me accurate and prompt reply which helped me to complete my R&D quickly.

Thanks Mark for your prompt replies and showing keen interest in my developments.

Finally I cannot end my blog thanking The Great CHARLIE FACINI of Freehand Graphics (www.softwareforscreenprinters.com) who was quite generous to donate free licenses of SEPARATION STUDIO and ACCURIP to DMI for our research and trial purpose. With his great innovations we could achieve fantastic results using SPOT PROCESS TECHNIQUE and we could print dramatic photorealistic images on white and dark garments

Take care and have a great week ahead.

Bhargav

For the first time in the world Exclusive Workshop on Textile (Garments) Screen Printing

I am proud to announce that DMI (Dhirubhai Mistry Institute) will be the first institute in the world to conduct 3 DAYS exclusive workshops on Textile (Direct-to-garment) Screen Printing for FREE.

The information given below will give you complete idea about the content of my next workshop scheduled 5 to 7 April 2012.

Register soon… Limited Seats…

Bhargav

nano-printex was a show stopper @GTE12 New Delhi

On its debut, our most innovative product of this year, Grafica’s nano-prinTex “print easy” world’s first automatic direct-to-garment textile screen printing machine manufactured without problematic pneumatics or complicated hydraulic systems made its presence felt with a bang at the recently concluded Garment Technology Expo (GTE – 17-20 February 2012) in New Delhi.

nano-prinTex has really opened its innings with thunders from the day we launched this fantastic product. Soon every garment screen printers will realize the benefits after using this machine. Its not just that I am fully confident about the quality and consistency of our products but I strongly believe that this machine will speak on its own. Its such an amazing machine, highly comfortable and so easy to use that you will just like it as much as I do.

It’s my humble request to all garment screen printers that do not waste your hard earned money buying any expensive machine without seeing Grafica’s nano-prinTex because trust me Grafica’s nano-prinTex will give you better quality output and speed at a much lower investment.

SO THINK ABOUT YOUR ROI FIRST before making any quick decisions.

With this morale booster exhibition and our stepping stone for success we are now preparing ground to launch Grafica’s nano-prinTex at KnitWorld to be held from 16-19 March 2012 at Dana Mandi, Bahadur Ke Road, Ludhiana in the state of Punjab, India.

 
 

Meanwhile, I am thankful to all my customers and well wishers who visited us at GTE (Garment Technology Exhibition) at Okhla, New Delhi to witness live demo of nano-prinTex. I am especially thankful to all B2B media who gave wide coverage in their ‘daily show bulletin’ as well as in their regular magazines. 

I am also preparing contents and samples for my first three days workshop at DMI (Dhirubhai Mistry Institute) exclusively on direct-to-garment textile screen printing scheduled from 5 to 7 April 2012. I would say it will be world’s first comprehensive workshop on direct-to-garment screen printing with live demo on our nano-prinTex.

If you are a textile screen printer than hurry up register your name for DMI’s exclusive workshop on direct-to-garment textile screen printing.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

See you soon at KnitWorld, Ludhiana from 17 to19 March 2012 at Dana Mandi, Bahadur Ke Road, Ludhiana.

“Print Easy”

Bhargav

DMI’s creative valentine card 100% screen printed

Hi folks,

Lots of news and updates are to be posted on my blog. First our newly launch Grafica’s nano-prinTex, the nano-prinTex launching party, exhibition updates, textile workshop etc.  But in the mean time I thought let me first take the advantage of this valentine day by sharing this beautiful DMI’s VALENTINE CARD which was screen printed in my recent workshop at DMI Institute.

This card is screen printed on a white paper with 100% black UV Ink as a background color later on top of this black background we screen printed various Special Effects UV Inks and Varnish.

With the growing trend of email, e-news and sms distributing greeting cards has become a luxury. Manufacturers of greeting cards are not able to huge attract consumers because of producing simple and boring designs just with few meaningful quotes or sentences. They all look monotonous that we do not feel like spending money on such card. Because if words can only say everything than why not send an email or sms.

In this dominant digital world (email, e-news & sms) the only thing which will remain forever is TOUCH, FEEL, SMELL & FEELINGS and screen printing is the only process which can deliver better and cheaper than any other printing process currently used.

So considering the benefits of screen printing process this VALENTINE CARD was screen designed and screen printed in my recent workshop at DMI Institute. In this card I used various special effects inks and varnishes including fragrance ink on the red rose and matt UV ink directly screen printed on mirror.

The meaning of this valentine card is very simple I hope you will understand once you see this video.

This card can be used for any occasion or event not necessary on Valentine’s Day. But since today is a Valentine Day. So I thought let me take a chance to impress you.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Bhargav

DMI Workshop Flashback 2011

Hi Friends,

Let me begin my first blog wishing all of you HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012. May the year bring you HAPPY, PEACEFUL, DELIGHTFUL & SUCCESSFUL MOMENTS.

It was a wonderful year 2011 for Grafica and DMI. But I still recollect those great memories of associating with you during various exhibitions, DMI workshops, and road shows and of course through my blogs.

Before I start FLASHBACK 2011 at DMI, from the bottom of my heart I thank all my customers, well wishers and friends in the printing industry who were very supportive through the year and special thanks to all DMI sponsors. It’s because of your overwhelmed support and trust we are able to continuously improve and bring new innovations in screen printing.

Watch DMI Workshop Flashback 2011 VIDEO.

I am sure you will agree that DMI has changed the rules of the screen printing industry in India by imparting advance knowledge, bringing new innovations etc. and Grafica Flextronica kept this industry alive and kicking by introducing advance and affordable technologies. Actually the fusion of Grafica & DMI has not only brought the screen printing process in the lime light all over the world but the overall industry has been immensely benefiting due to our innovations.

Throughout the year DMI has introduced many new techniques in special effects screen printing to compliment offset and digital printing for value addition.

Today I am glad to present this video where you will be able see detailed and close up images of many new special effects screen printed products which were demonstrated in my various 2011 workshops.

Watch DMI’s Creative Sample Gallery VIDEO.

So keep in touch through my DMI workshops or various other events of Grafica. For your information my next DMI workshop is scheduled on 2-3-4 February 2012.

Finally I cannot end up this blog without thanking my entire team Grafica and DMI team who performed brilliantly during the year.

Wish you all the best.

Happy Screen Printing 2012.

Bhargav

Learn how to screen print 511 Solid Colors with just 9 Impressions

In this workshop at DMI starting from 1st Dec to 3rd Dec, I am going to teach how to achieve 511 solid (pantone) colors in just 9 impressions.

This technique was developed by my Guru Michel Caza and he was quite generous to teach me when I was undergoing my training in his company Graficaza at France.

He named this technique “Caza Superimposition” where I remember he used to achieve 64 spot colors with only 6 impressions. But this research at DMI went even further where I developed how to achieve 511 spot color by just adding only 3 impressions more.

It would be a nightmare to print more than 100 special spot (solid pantone) colors and making 100 screens for each color. Its also difficult to stock and manage so many special colors.

Now its possible to do that using a special technique which I will be teaching in our coming workshop at DMI starting from 1st to 3rd December 2011.

In this workshop we are going to screen print around 100 different spot (Pantone colors) and also with few metallic spot colors on a calendar with just 9 impressions only.

Later we shall also add around 12 new UV special effects on the same calendar. One of the special effect out of that will be UV MIRROR INKS.

More over we will be also printing this calendar on a Transparent Plastic, Metallic Foil and a Rigid White Sun-board

This technique will be shown at DMI for the first time in this coming workshop and I am very excited to screen print this calendar in front of all the lucky participant who have registered for this workshop.

If you are a Grafica customer (within India) and if you wish to get this fantastic DMI 2012 calendar at your doorstep than kindly leave a message with your contact details on this blog post and I shall try to send if possible.

This superb technique can be explored by any screen printers in many applications where you want to screen print more 50/100 solid (spot) colors with limited impressions to save cost and to make more profits. So far I could list down only few of them for your ready reference:

1. Calendars
2. Wedding Cards
3. Dairies
4. Books, Notebooks & Stationery
5. School bags
6. Toys and Games
7. Fancy stickers and labels
8. CD/DVD covers
9. Gifts and Novelties
10. Art & Serigraphy
11. Packaging
12. Packaging on Transparent Plastic
13. School Bags
14. Carry Bags
15. and you can also compliment this idea on a offset or a digital prints also.

In the last workshop we screen printed Table Matt and Tea Coasters on a MDF and I am sure you can make good money if you sell this idea to any good chain of hotels and restaurants.

The image was first screen printed using process color inks and later we added 9 UV special effects inks and varnish to add value to the product.

I am sure many good hotels and high class restaurants would not mind in spending on such creative stuffs. You can also make the menu cards on the same MDF to complete the concept.

CLICK   HERE   TO   SEE   MORE   DETAILED   PHOTOS   OF   THIS   PRODUCTS

These photos will help you to create more ideas and to make more profits from your screen printing business.

At DMI we work hard to support and educate screen printers FREE OF COST… and I am sure we will keep doing this in future…

In our next workshop you will learn more about this 511 solid (spot) color techniques on the following products:

1. Revolving Table Lamp Stand, Screen Printed on Acrylic surrounded with MDF border.

2. Wine Bottle Box (Packaging) on metallic foil with high quality UV special effect.

3. Candle Light Stand with Fragrance

4. Plastic Diaries and Note Book Covers with UV Mirror Inks.

Remember all above will be screen printed using the new 511 solid (spot) color technique with only 9 impressions…

Have a profitable week.

Bhargav

Strengths Weakness Opportunities And Threats in Screen Printing

“With advancement taking place at all levels, screen printing has evolved as indispensable and a ‘versatile’ printing process”

I would like to pen down some of my recent thoughts about screen printing in the form of a quick SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of Indian screen printing industry scenario.

STRENGTHS:

Automation and UV technology – One of our valued customers who had 15 manual tables has now as many as 7 semi automatic screen printing machines. There are many screen printers whose business has doubled or tripled over the years ever since they switched over to automation along with UV. So, semi automatic and fully automatic screen printing machines are now making inroads into Indian screen printing industry in a big way.

In the last decade, from a predominantly manual printing process there has been a big shift from manual operations to semi-automatic and now fully automatic printing machines. Going by my own company’s sales performance, there has been steep increase in the number of screen printing machines (and UV curing machines) sold in the last couple of years than it was five to ten years ago. Also, a noteworthy transformation is that there has been quantum leap in the number of visitors to our pavilions at various printing industry exhibitions than it was 5-10 years ago.

That’s because screen printing not only involves low investment which is a big advantage for those wanting to join the screen printing business, but also there has been widespread applications of this versatile process and greater awareness about the immense benefits of and need for automation.

“Quality” improvement: Quality in screen printing seems to have come a long way. Today, with automatic precision machines, it is possible to get a result that years ago would have been a dream. Let the world believe that the screen printing process today is faster, better and cleaner.

New trend – combination of processes: There has been a growing trend of offset printers/packaging companies setting up inhouse screen printing unit instead of outsourcing. There are many digital printers who have set up screen printing units to meet the market demand for ‘total print solution’. Screen Printing is the perfect complement to offset and it works in tandem to help generate more business.

WEAKNESSES

Education – lack of knowledge!

I would say knowledge is the key to success to any business. What’s the use if screen printers have fully automatic screen printing line without having a proper knowledge?

In screen printing industry there is not only lack of ‘knowledge’ but also lack of ‘knowers of knowledge’. Inspire of this drawback, over the years, bravo, our screen printers have made drastic improvements due to their sheer hard work and inclination to learn from self help, by reading technical articles, attending exhibitions, seminars etc.

I think the technical education think tanks in India should really make an immediate analysis of the printing education offered in various institutes which is MINUS “advanced screen printing”, they touch upon only some basics and outdated elements of screen printing… very sad especially when the Indian screen printing is adopting automation in a big way and the need for trained screen printing professionals is shooting up. In the recent past, there has been a growing trend of offset printers embracing screen printing, whereas the printing institutes emphasizes more on offset and other printing technology.

On my part, I am determined to take screen printing education to a greater height through my own institute DMI. I am receiving tremendous response from the industry. What was started as workshops with 8-10 participants today our workshops are always houseful with long queue of waitlisted knowledge seekers.

I had produced and screened a video film ‘Screen on Screen’ in 15 cities few years ago. Following this success, we followed it up with yet another round of all India campaigns (ten) whereby we took our entire Nano Premier League package to show the screen printing process live to printers.

I fully agree with Mr Narendra P of Pragati Press, Hyderabad who recently said that the old mindset ‘screen printing business can easily be started with an investment as low as Rs. 500-1000 to print visiting cards, letterheads, etc, has to change now. That’s because technological development in screen printing has moved much ahead of this thinking. I strongly also agree with his view point that in screen printing every step is a ‘science’. So without learning this ‘science’ nothing can be printed qualitatively. By learning new techniques we can assimilate it in our daily practice.

OPPORUTNITIES:

Applications, unlimited: Screen-printing is a fantastic technology that is used by many industries with so many old, new and not yet discovered applications – both flat (plastics, cloth, metal, thin to thick papers, sunpack/sunboard, rubber, leather, wood, glass, footwears, PCBs, ceramics, etc) and non-flat substrates, by using appropriate machinery and inks. Further, this process is also widely used in packaging, labels, Smart-cards – the list of screen printing application is endless.

Growing trend – Value addition through various UV Special effect inks/varnishes: What was started as Spot UV – matt and gloss – today with the availability of various UV special effects, screen printers have now great chance to excite consumers. The range and variety of effect is extensive and it provides the marketer, print buyer and designer with a number of exciting possibilities.

Use of non-paper Substrates: Continuous advancements and developments in polymer technology, expertise and cost-effective manufacturing, plastic substrates are replacing traditional materials in many fields (environmental conditions apply!). These include : PVC, Polypropylene, HIPS, Lenticular Films, Polycarbonate etc. Polypropylene Sheets are extensively used for blister packaging, cardboard boxes etc. Polypropylene finds application in Disposable Containers, Embossing, Gift Box Making out of clear sheets, Freight Packaging, etc. PVC Sheets and Polypropylene Sheets are the best suited for screen printing. Polypropylene is also preferred by screen printers because of its low density and very economical cost. Similarly, PVC is also widely used by screen printers.

Great shift – Indian screen printers: I still recall what Michel Caza, an international screen printing expert said at the FESPA Munich 2010 Workshop titled “The Future of Screen Printing Goes Through Innovation — A comparison between Western and Asian Countries.” He was of the view that “Graphics and signage are only 20% of screen applications where as 35% lies in textile printing and about 45% in industrial applications.” This clearly sums up the potentials and future of screen printing process.

Screen printers should now take the call: During the presentation at FESPA Munich show, which was focused on the “how European countries are moving towards screen and how in Indian screen printing is moving with the latest trend,” Michel had also mentioned that because of industrial production getting shifted to Asian countries, screen printing is also getting more and more attention in this (Asian) region and that is the advantage for screen printers who are into industrial screen printing such as PCB, membrane switches, etc.

Moreover, even Mike Young’s presentation on “Emerging Technologies” proves that screen printing has a promising future. He sees a great future provided the screen printers in India remove all bottlenecks the major being “clean-room environment in the screen making and printing setup.” That’s because he saw hard working and sincere efforts by Indian screen printers to achieve quality through high level of automation. Mike was also quite optimistic about Indian screen printers. He says that Indian screen printers can face the challenges ahead with determination, enthusiasm, passion and courage.

Participation in Awards competitions – great opportunity to printers:

I have been witnessing a growing number of entries and award winners in two major international competitions – SGIA/ FESPA sponsored besides national competitions such as Screen Print India Award and SPAI-FESPA India and PrintWeek India competitions. That’s not only good but a healthy sign, because ultimately it increases appetite for quality improvement on various counts – Complexity, Image definition, precision and sharpness; Colour appearance, Application of use, Creativity, etc.

Still majority of the printers still hesitate to participate in these competitions due to many reasons.

THREATS:

a) Manual screen printing. If our screen printers are catering to industrial printing they should immediately dump manual screen printing tables as there are strict quality and delivery requirements in industrial segment. I have numerous screen printers who have switched over to automation due to all the side effects of manual screen printing – it is tedious, laborious, time consuming, wastage-ridden. I was told by many international experts that India lags behind several decades in screen printing but it is not too late.

b) Use of poor quality raw materials.

c) Use of Out-dated methods: Wooden frames, nylon white fabric instead of polyester yellow fabric, lack of standardisation in screen making although it is well known fact that screen is the heart of printing.

d) Using solvent although UV available for many applications.

Perhaps due to these reasons there is a growing trend in India that more and more OEMs are now setting up their own screen printing units. For example: Tiles and Ceramic industry, electronic industry, leather industry, garment industry, packaging and offset industry and many more. In these areas they used to earlier outsource their requirement.

Conclusion:

Screen printing process evolved over the years. Today, it offers ample innovation & creativity, thus playing a major role in printing industry because of the availability of advanced screen printing machines, UV technology coupled with availability of innovative special effects inks.

Screen printing is now quicker, cheaper, produces better quality images and offers a number of special applications. But advanced screen printing with high level of automation is not everybody’s cup of tea. Having advanced machines in place is not sufficient to run a profitable screen printing business. There is no profit from the press of a button like an ATM card. There is no short cut. Because not only does the set-up process take considerably longer than other techniques, but being able to truly master printing high quality images using the screen printing process also takes much longer, because there are a number of variables involved.

Today, there exist different systems designed to help the screen printers to achieve better result. But it revolves around the simple concept or standardisation of the entire screen printing process.

The comment made by Prof. Dr. Rajendra Kumar Anayath, Print Media Academy, Chennai – a Heidelberg Initiative during his visit to our stall at Print Pack 2011 New Delhi, is significant: “Bhargav, screen printing today is not what it was 6-7 years ago. With the kind of experiments that you are making at your DMI, it appears to me that it has emerged as a printing process to be reckoned with.”

Bye friends and have a great week…

Bhargav

DMI is becoming indispensable

Hi folks, these days I am noticing an urge for learning among the printing community and this a good sign for our industry. DMI is already imparting knowledge constantly to many printing professional since 2006. Thousands of printing professionals who have already gained tremendous knowledge from my workshops back home inspires their colleagues and industry friends to also gain such advance knowledge from DMI Workshops. So I think DMI is becoming indispensable.

Ok, one more successful workshop concluded in April, this time we created a design which had a fusion of process color screen printing (CMYK) using 100 LPI halftone dots with special effects on packaging, 100% screen printed on NANO-PRINT. Can you imagine?. Even I was thrilled to see such high quality print on Grafica’s magnificent creation NANO-PRINT and this time again we used all four machines in line to print CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW and BLACK one after another.

The participant were really stun to see this unique idea of Grafica’s Semi-Automatic Multicolor Line using four NANO-PRINT with four NANO-UV in line to print CMYK because they were able to see the result in just few seconds. Not only our idea is unique but I feel this is the most economical method to screen print multi color jobs in line.

 

The reason to show this innovative concept in my workshop from now onwards is to educate how to reduce manpower and supervision cost and how to increases productivity. This is something I believe never done before in the screen printing industry with semi automatic machines.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE IN DETAILS ABOUT MY NEW CONCEPT

Usually screen printers are afraid or avoid to print a photo realistic image by screen just because they lack knowledge of screen printing halftone dots. To my knowledge if you know the basics of process color screen printing and start practicing I am very much confident that you can do wonders in packaging and many other segments where screen has added advantage over other printing processes especially on rigid substrates.

I have been always emphasizing that through screen printing process, we can bring a print to life by using one or more special effects. In my previous workshops at DMI I tried to prove that several of the UV special effects currently available in the market can be used on the same product. It can also replace, often at a lower cost. And that is exactly what I tried to prove during my recent workshop on 21, 22 and 23 April 2011.

Currently in India it is the wedding season. Wedding is the most significant event in a person’s life and naturally printing a wedding invitation plays a very important role and has now also become a status symbol. So it has to be unique and innovative right…

So, this time I decided to demonstrate luxury wedding card with box, an accompaniment to go with wedding invitation, combining process color (CMYK) screen printing and UV special effects. In all, the experiment involved 15 impressions, requiring 15 different screens. We printed it on 400 GSM silver metalized film laminated on paper.

The image reflected the Mogul Era creativity, viz, peacock, flowers. The idea was to create fusion of old designs printed with new concept with shimmering effect vs CMYK and multiple special effects.

The design was created with the objective of demonstrating the fusion of four process color printing and as many as 9 UV special effects / varnishes all on one single product. The special effects included: golden abrasive, standard abrasive, coral varnish, crystal varnish, glitter flakes, 3D reflective varnish, wrinkle varnish, duo tone solvent pearl ink and matte varnish.

On the same image, several of these effects can be combined but remember one needs be careful and should have thorough understanding of the designing and knowledge of screen printing techniques and UV special effects which are some of the contents taught in my workshops.

The register such multi color job is very crucial in these kind of designs and requires very high quality screens and machinery. As these effects will have to be overprinted, utmost care must be taken.

Although in real world scenario nobody will use so many effects on one single product, if some customers are ready to pay for the worth of such high value creativity, yes one can go for it. Otherwise even couple of special effects can also give vibrant look for such creative jobs.

This time I was more specific by highlighting the job details and the sequence of printing, mesh count used for each inks and varnishes, screen making and screen emulsion coating techniques used for each effects etc. so that participants do not have to ask and can conveniently make a note of the complete process with details.

   

I am proud that my DMI’s contribution has been highly commended by numerous printers who have attended my workshop. They all know that DMI is trying to bring positive transformation among scores of screen printers. That’s because participants get highly motivated and inspired during my 3-day workshop.

Also checkout my previous workshop report and see photos of our creative wedding card and packaging design 100% screen printed live during the workshop CLICK HERE

So if you have still not experience my workshop at DMI don’t forget to register your seats immediately online following this link: www.graficaindia.com

So again I remind you, At DMI Learn More Earn More…

Have a creative week…

Bhargav

US delegation led by my friend Mike Young visits DMI and Grafica customers

I know that you are all missing my blog posts for over a month now. That’s because I have been fully preoccupied with lot of new developments. After I returned from FESPA AMERICA (that was my last blog post), I had series of planning and development activities including last DMI workshop, US delegation led by Mike Young, office shifting and streamlining lot of activities post-shifting of my sales, marketing and account office, visits to some international exhibitions, etc. But how long I can suffocate myself with so much news? So, next few paras are all about the immediate past events.

By the way, many big ideas are cropping up in my mind which I feel will create a new bench mark in the screen printing industry with the support of many industry leaders, friends and colleagues. So, just few months to pass before I announce big news that will again bring revolution in screen printing industry.

US delegation led by my friend Mike Young visits DMI and few Grafica customers’ facilities in Mumbai and Pune.

Last month Mike Young, a SGIA Fellows, a member of ASPT, led a US delegation of screen printing professionals to DMI/Grafica, following which I also arranged their visit to some leading customers in Mumbai and Pune as they wanted to get the feel of developments taking place in Indian screen printing industry. Mike and his colleagues were touched by the warm, gracious and generous hospitality of Grafica customers. From my side, I can say that this tour of India was mine and Mike Young’s “THE BEST BUSINESS TRAVEL EXPERIENCE EVER.”

They were in India from 28th March to April 1, 2011 to get familiar with DMI’s activities and to study the developments taking place in Indian screen printing industry as a whole.

Mike is a SGIA Fellows, a member of the Academy of Screen Printing Technology (ASPT) and recipient of the prestigious Swormstedt Award for technical writing. Mike who runs his own consultancy firm Imagetek Consulting International, has also conducted training programs in several screen printing companies in India.

Grafica feels proud to be associated with Mike Young time and again. In 2009 Grafica had sponsored his Knowledge Tour in India, covering various six major cities. Then recently Grafica was one of the prime sponsors of his technical seminars at SPI 2010 in Mumbai.

 

This time Mike Young’s visit to India was very special. There was no seminar, no presentation, but only mutual exchange of ideas with Team Grafica, DMI faculties and Grafica customers.

This visit was the fall out of FESPA AMERICAS held in Orlando, USA where I had conducted live workshop on value addition and special effects through screen printing process. I was among the five Global Screen Masters who had conducted live workshops during FESPA AMERICAS. The gentlemen were well impressed with my live demo and wanted to know more about DMI’s activities because they were very much impressed by the creativity which I explored in FESPA AMERICAS.

 

During his interactions with few Grafica customers Mike gave them many TIPS which will definitely help them to improve quality and enhance productivity. Mike was also kind enough to present his ‘Register Guide Technical Book, Part 2’ to few Grafica’s customers during his visit.

Grafica feel honored to have such an association with Mike Young. He has special heart for India and Indian screen printers. He sees a great future provided the screen printers in India remove all bottlenecks the major being “clean-room environment in the screen making and printing setup.” That’s because he saw hard working and sincere efforts by Indian screen printers to achieve quality through high level of automation. He is quite optimistic about Indian screen printers. He says that Indian screen printers can face the challenges ahead with determination, enthusiasm, passion and courage.

On behalf of DMI and my team, I sincerely thanks its customers – Fashion Accessories Pvt Ltd, Star Labels Pvt Ltd, Pinnacle Prints Pvt Ltd, Ace Printers, Sai Toys, Minda Stoneridge Ltd, Pune Metagraph Pvt Ltd, NBA Studios – for all their efforts, resources and valuable time spent with Mike Young and his team. My Team thanks Mike Young for visiting DMI and India to share his rich knowledge generously.

Back home these gentlemen wrote touching letters which are reproduced elsewhere in this newsletter along with Mike Young’s tour report.

Update on Nano-Print plus!

The production of our new innovation “Nano-Print plus” is now in full swing and dispatches are being commenced. There is a surprise to all those who have booked for this machine earlier. Nano-Print plus has been redesigned after meticulous R&D by our engineering team to offer bigger print area 22” x 28” instead of 18″ x 24″ print area with no additional cost.

NPL plus Package

Based on the runaway success of Nano-Premier League (NPL), ‘a complete screen printing solution’, introduced by my company a year ago, I am pleased to announce that we have also launched Nano-Premier League plus (NPL plus) which includes NANO-UV of 18″ curing width. Just like NPL, this unique package also consists of 11 items which is intended to give screen printers greater freedom to deliver high quality jobs with reasonable capital investments.

Grafica’s Cylinder Press

My company has achieved a big break-through in Gulf region and we have already installed several cylinder presses now in UAE. More orders being finalized both in India and abroad. That’s because there has been a growing trend of many offset printers and packaging printers embracing screen printing process for carrying out print finishing in house to provide value addition through screen printing process.

DMI Workshops

Since January 2011 I had conducted two workshops at DMI and next one is scheduled to be held on 21, 22 and 23 April. It gives me immense pleasure to reveal you all that till today DMI has provided high quality training to thousands of printing professionals across the globe through our regular workshops and corporate training programs. My next workshop is scheduled to be held on 9, 10 and 11th June. Do register your names online quickly from our website www.graficaindia.com

At the recent DMI workshop, I demonstrated a new concept of process colour screen  printing requiring low investment. I lined up FOUR NANO-PRINTs with FOUR NANO-UV inline and screen printed 4-colour jobs instantly like a multi color screen printing line. The participants were curious and  enthusiastic to see the simple mechanism of Nano-Print semi automatic multi colour line.

This new concept: “NANO-PRINT semi automatic multi color line” is yet another revolution by Grafica with low investment for faster job turn around in four process colour screen printing with UV inks or multiple UV special effects printing.

Usually four process colour screen printing on a semi automatic machine is to be done one colour at a time and it is not possible to evaluate the final result until the 4th color is screen printed. But with this concept created by my company, screen printers can now instantly see the final output of the printed job and if required one can set the densities of a particular color or tweak the machine settings to get the final print as the proof.

This is really a time and money saving factor which one should start considering as a future investment. This concept also requires less manpower thus reduces supervision time and cost and can increases production at a rapid speed.”

Watch one minute video of this new concept of:

Grafica’s “NANO-PRINT semi automatic multi color line”

Also in the last workshop we had shown a glimpse of Epson T1100 A3+ inkjet printer to make in-house positives. In the coming workshop we will show live demo of how to generate positives without using expensive RIPs to create halftone positives.

 

This printer is a good investment for producing in-house positives and I am sure it will also replace screen printers who are using tracing papers for making positives. Believe me if you want to do quality jobs and want to improve sharpness and registration accuracy Epson T1100 is a better solution for all NANO-PRINT customers.

This printer can also be used for color prints and proofing. To see how to generate high quality positives using Epson T1100 and how to make halftone positives including process color (CMYK) without using RIPs than kindly register online and reserve your seat for the upcoming DMI workshop.

Rousing success at Gulf Print & Pack, Dubai

My company garnered rousing success at the recently concluded Gulf Print & Pack in Dubai from 14-17 March 2011. This was for the first time that Grafica displayed its Cylinder Press in an overseas exhibition. This was Grafica’s third appearance in the desert.

 

My Team consisting of Hanish Mehta, General Manager; Keyur Vashi, Sr. Sales Manager and other technical staff were camping in Dubai to manage the exhibition. Grafica’s participation in this exhibition was possible through Dilawar Dalwai of Al Mahir Printing Equipment Trading, Grafica’s loyal representative in Dubai.

Join DMI’s Facebook:

I appeal all screen printers to join DMI’s Facebook network for exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge. Also get many insights and tips from experts. Make friends within the industry and be in contact with world famous gurus and experts who are linked with me. Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/dmiinstitute

Lot more to come soon. Till than good bye…

Bhargav Mistry

Back in action after FESPA AMERICAS rich experience

FIRST MY PRAYER & TRIBUTE TO PEOPLE OF JAPAN

Before I begin to pen down my all recent news, I submit my sincere prayer: may GOD bless the people of Japan with peace and lot of inner powers to face the toughest challenges arising out of the recent earthquake and tsunami, its after effects including the nuclear crisis.

I personally like Japan and the Japanese technology; I respect their hardwork and dedication which they have put not only into electronics but also automobiles, engineering and other areas. They have given the world many fantastic innovations that cannot be ignored. Their ability to bounce back from the aftermath of the World War II is a great lesson to be learnt by rest of the world. And I am sure they would equally bounce back from the current crisis too.

I had worked with many Japanese in the past when I joined my father’s business in 1989. At that time we used to manufacture Printed Circuit Boards and our company Grafica Display used to cater to many of the giant electronic companies in India having collaboration with renowned Japanese organizations. So my experience with them was really amazing. I have learnt a lot from them, their system of working, management, production and quality systems, how to achieve production efficiency etc. etc… (Photos of my training in Japan)

Once again I strongly pray to GOD to give them great support and courage to face such devastating tragedy.

OVER TO FESPA AMERICAS:

Now let me share my rich experience at FESPA AMERICAS event in Orlando, USA.

First of all, I sincerely thank FESPA and their team for giving me such a great honor by inviting to conduct a joint workshop with great masters.

It was a valiant effort by FESPA for experimenting and bringing such great idiosyncratic talents together under one roof. It was great fun and a rare experience working with such veterans of our industry.

Michel and I were suppose to teach process color and graphics screen printing but what I realized from this show that Print Finishing for value addition has a HUGE, HUGE scope in the US market. Screen printers in the US have great potential in this segment and need to explore the idea of print finishing which I am teaching in DMI since last three years. Thousands of screen printers have already benefitted by learning print finishing from DMI Workshops FREE OF COST…

Michel looked very energetic throughout the show as always, Charlie and Scott were great together and my new friend Ad Versteeg was also great human and knowledgable in art screen printing.

Overall the show was mix of all printing technologies, screen, digital, textile and few stands selling offset machines and stuffs.

Also, I had a great time with friend Mike Young who came with few of his industry friends and colleagues, Ron Hayden, David ECKL, Jon Andresen. We had great time and delicious dinners together.

After the FESPA AMERICAS at Orlando, Mike Young was kind enough to take me in an around New York city and we had some fun moments together.

With me Hanish Mehta and Shashank Khedekar were also there to support me throughout the show while I was busy at the workshop.

I was highly enthused when I saw our NPL system running perfectly during the live workshop. The best part, it was appreciated by all visitors who saw our super creation.

The overwhelming response towards NANO-PRINT, NANO-SCREEN MAKER 5-in-1, NANO-UV and NANO-SHARPENER give clear indication that Grafica will definitely mark success in the US market soon.

It made me feel proud and the day is not far when NANO-PRINT, NANO-PRINT plus and complete NPL package will be part of success story of many screen printers in US.

With this remarkable achievement by our company, I am highly glad to announce that from next month onwards Grafica will have full fledged operation to cater the American market with efficient sales team and highly qualified service engineers to offer prompt technical support.

DMI Workshop starting tomorrow:

It will be very busy week for me because less time and more task to complete in a short span of time. This time I am expecting 45 to 50 participants mainly from outside Mumbai. That’s because of huge gap within two workshop dates due to FESPA AMERICAS.

During the workshop, for the first time, I would be demonstrating semi automatic multi color screen printing by lining up 4 Nano-Print with inline Nano-UV. I am sure participants will gain new insights how to improve production capacity with minimum investment thus maintaining high quality standards.

On second day I would demonstrate creatives and new ideas in wedding cards and packaging through screen printing. Some of these jobs will be executed on Grafica’s new Nano-Print plus and Nano-Print.

On third day as usual I would be demonstrating practical on heat transfer screen printing both tagless neck labels and garment printing.

Dubai Exhibition:

I was also informed by my team that our Dubai exhibition is going great guns and they managed to book more than a dozen of NPL package and couple of Cylinder Presses. Grafica is creating a storm in the desert that’s because this is our  3rd exhibition in Dubai within one year. WOW that’s great news to keep me energetic.

Garknit-X Kolkata

My has company created a great interest among West Bengal’s offset printing community at the recently concluded Garknit-X Kolkata, an exhibition focussed on apparel, knitting, leather and jute technology fabric and accessories.

Garknit-X Kolkata was held from 25 – 27, February 2011 at Science City. Although it was a garment, textile and jute industry event, in order to take full advantage of the exhibition, we had invited several printers from offset and non-textile segment. We had also displayed a set of creative print finishing samples with a variety of special effects produced by DMI students which stirred the creative minds of many offset printers.

They were lucky to see live demo of Grafica’s NPL and NPL plus series of screen printing machine and equipment for the first time in Kolkata.

And finally, kudos to DMI students:

In a fitting tribute to the successive achievements at ASPT, Screenprinting & Graphics Association of India (SGAI) in association with Screen Print India felicitated DMI students at their Awards felicitation program in Mumbai on 2nd March 2010. The awards were present by Al Guercio, President, Ulano Corporation, USA.

Being in FESPA AMERICAS I really missed the opportunity to see my students being felicitated. They were also honoured for their achievements in the ASPT 2010 students’ competition.

My company’s new office in Mumbai:

Before my official announcement, I am delighted to inform you that GRAFICA FLEXTRONICA is beginning its new office in Mumbai very close to the domestic airport and international airport. Our office will be fully functional by 21st of March 2011.

So from 21st onwards all the marketing, sales and accounts related matters will be handled from our new Mumbai office.

Customers can now come down to our Mumbai office instead of going all the way to directly factory. For customers who want to visit our factory for demo, trials and inspection of our machines, special arrangements have been made to reach our factory.

We shall intimate you soon with full contact details of our new office once the telephones lines are hooked up.

To all my respected customers, friends and industry colleagues, this is my personal invitation to visit our new office anytime and shower your good wishes. To have a cup of tea or coffee together will also be a great fun.

So, from 21st March 2011 see you in at our new Vile Parle office in Mumbai.

Join DMI’s FaceBook:

Welcome onboard DMI’s facebook for educationally like minded screen printing professionals. Its very simple to join DMI FaceBook network you need to just clicking on “I LIKE” button and you are connect with me and my DMI’s network.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN

The purpose to involve with DMI’s FaceBook Network is to know various development in the industry, exchange ideas, share your thoughts with like minded printers, give advise and tips from the industry gurus and experts associated with DMI’s FaceBook Network. This is a platform specially created to exchange knowledge on advanced screen  printing process and technology.

Till then have a nice and a profitable week.

Bhargav