Screen Printing Forum

The shop that I work at took an order to print a 2 color image on 144 umbrellas. I was just wondering if anyone knew what the best way to approach this job might be. As it's set up now, we would be using a 4 station manual Hopkins press, with a small platen, and flash curing them. (No way I'm putting them through the conveyor!)

I guess my problem is that it seems like this process will take much longer, and be much harder than it should be, and I'm hoping that there is a better way.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I put umbrellas down the belt before.
You just have to make sure you have the right temp or they will melt

Your gonna want to use an air dry ink, the kind you use for bandit signs. Use a fan to dry one color and print the second.

Heat press?

Plastisol with catalyst.

Print, flash to de-tackify
(Is that even a word?! )

Cut some cardboard triangles
to match the shape between the ribs.

Slide it in to flatten the imprinted area
and run it thru the dryer cure to 320*.

The catalyst will finish the curing.

-Rob

God umbrellas can suck to print plastisol...But it's possible...I printed 120 1 color, light on dark, umbrellas on a manual press with plastisol...it sucks but you can either use a chair (or something with wheels) to support the weight of the umbrella as it is being printed...We just flash cured them...You can also heat press or sublimate them too, if you have a cad cutter, or sublimation machine...check the temperature guidelines though for the material, as many umbrella materials can melt easily...As mentioned, if you have the money you can also get water based, air drying inks to cure them...Anyway their done, bid high enough to compensate the excess time they will take, as production for umbrellas is often slow...

Most of the umbrella printing that I've seen has been by sublimation.

I used to print tons of umbrellas. We did so many you could say it was raining cats and umbrellas....ok I admit that was Stupid! haha
I printed them on a Hopkins 4c press and I used International coatings nylon ink (900 serise) with their nylon catalyst. We had great success doing it that way. We just treated them as if they were a very think jacket. I used a Heat gun to flash between colors and them again for the final cure. The umbrellas I printed were nylon so I needed to pre-shrink them before printing. I used the heat gun for that too along with a light coat of spray tack on my board. I printed them opened.

Good luck with your job!