[signz in oz]

hello all, is there a limit on colors to a screenprinted t shirt?
i ask because i want to learn abit about this industry, im not a screen printer just curious.
if there is a 3 caroulsel set up how many colors can be used on that machine?
thanks all

 

[PositiveDave]

it depends how many stations your carousel has, about 12 - 16 seems to be the practical limit.

 

[signz in oz]

i think the one i saw had 3 stations, the girl there said screenprinting on that setup only good for 2 colors, is that true or just lazy?

 

[BroJames]

To answer your question,

(1) It depends on the setup of your press. If you have a line table setup, you can have even more than a million colors. That would be absurd though unless someone wants to set a guinness world record.

(2) On a 3 carousel(or color) press, although none showed up in a quick google search, then it is designed (and recommended) for 3 colors. But it is still possible to print more than 3 colors though. Just may not be as efficient as the press is designed for.

Based on what "the girl" said, could it be a 2 color and 1 station press? You could still print more than 2 colors if you really need to but that would entail some attachments and may slow down the printing process.

Generally though, in a rotary press, you don't print more than the print heads that it has. Even on line table and other setups, 10-14 colors is on the high side.

 

[bornover]

Since you want to learn things about screen printing Chris, what Dave said about how many screens a screen printing press can hold is right. Some very large automatic presses can hold a couple more screens, I have seen up to eighteen on a large auto. An interesting fact is that using printing techniques called Four Color Process, Simulated Process, and Indexed Color, you can create an image that looks like it has millions of colors. These three printing methods are very hard to master but provide superior results when wanting to print super high color images like photo and photo-realistic images.

 

[signz in oz]

cool, thanks for the info guys..... i remeber doing on screen stuff at school...its all coming back slowly....lolol afterall it was 25 years ago....lolol

 

[BroJames]

cool, thanks for the info guys..... i remeber doing on screen stuff at school...its all coming back slowly....lolol afterall it was 25 years ago....lolol

In my case, I would say I have to relearn everything back from HS days.