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In recent months i've been into designing large in your face text graphics to be put on t-shirts. I've seen alot of shirts, many from the urban designers, with graphics that take up almost the entire front of the shirt. Now in my past experiences with printers near me no one has been able to print over 15"x15"-17"x16.5". I need printing to be about 20"x20" for some designs is this an unusual size for screens or does this size printing require a different type of printing that smaller shops would not utilize. The size restriction I encoutered was also for foil printing. What is the biggest anyone has screened or had screened? Any insight would be great. Thanks!
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I need printing to be about 20"x20" for some designs is this an unusual size for screens or does this size printing require a different type of printing that smaller shops would not utilize.
Screen size isn't the issue (screens are cheap and easily sourced), the problem is the platen that the shirt goes on. Most of them are made for a fairly normal size range to be able to easily slip onto, and the size of that platen will limit the maximum size of the print. To print larger the shop would need to either make or buy some larger platens, print on a table, or use a belt printer. All three of those are viable options (the last being an expensive piece of equipment), but given that it will increase equipment cost (even if only slightly) and labour cost, it's the kind of thing not every shop will want to take on.
So yes it's possible (even for a small shop), no not everyone will do it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by klutchthread
What is the biggest anyone has screened or had screened?
I've done about 48"x24" (or 48"x300" depending on how you want to count). I'm sure the biggest anyone has done would be considerably larger
Our automatic palettes are 16" wide by 20 something long. We print largest size @ 15X17. 12 & 14 color autos have larger palettes so you might need to find a printer with a bigger press
I have had the same problem i have literally called every site imaginable and can find no one due to this problem any suggestions on who might be accepteable, i am outsourcing all my work so other than images another company has to get the printing done
I am printing my first oversized print later this week or the beginning of next. The body is 19", 24" wings (I think), and 31" length. My press can only accept 3 screens because of the oversized screens touching if placed right next to one another. I am working on a pallet that prints sleeves also. It is taking lots of engineering, and I hope it works. As an artist, I find the specialty printing part of the industry more interesting, as well as more profitable, so that is the direction that I am going with my company. Feel free to email me for quotes on oversized and specialty printing. I will make a thread with results of my first oversized print, and hopefully be able to fulfill some of the orders that some forum members have requested.
Most of the pallets I own are made by me. My restriction is the size and number of screens I can fit on my press due to that size. I have two full shirt plattens that have sleeves. works good but what a pain to load and unload. Oh and the full shirt plattens only fit xl shirts ( working on a tri slide design to fix that problen).I do not have a screen that will cover a whole shirt side yet but soon I will. as for you 20x20 design, That is what I print my company logo shirts at with no problems. If you are good with registration and squeegy control you couls split the designs in half, one half on each screen and odset the screens on the press for registration. then you just need a bigger platten. I have not mastered this in multicolor yet but single color is pretty easy.
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We can print a max single image area of 20" X 32" up to 8 colors. My press can accept screens up to 26" wide outside dim, printing up to 8 colors. If I disassemble 4 of the heads we can go even larger for a 4 colors or less, but it gets tough handling a squeegee that big. Platens aren't a problem, we'll just make a platen if we don't have one the right size.
For single-color something could be rigged up on a table top to just about any size.
For multi-color the press will determine the largest possible screen size... As Unik Ink pointed out, smaler diameter manual presses can't accept wider screens because they'll hit each other in the up position. The strength of the springs and the placement of the press will limit the max length due to the weight of the screen and the swing of the press.
The largest we have printed is about 16" wide by 26" long. To do it that we had to build a special pallet and a big screen. The springs on our press would not hold up a screen that size so we had to rest it on the next pallet while loading and unloading shirts. It can be done it's just more work.
Large Designs, Screen Sizes, Printers 
