A three day DMI workshop on advanced textile screen printing was organized by Vasai based Grafica Flextronica from 17 to 19 July 2017 where there were 18 overseas participants (South Africa: 10, Egypt: 5, Nepal: 2 and Sri Lanka: 1). In all there were 59 participants which turned out to be truly an international event.

Bhargav Mistry, the director, DMI (Dhirubhai Mistry Institute for Education, Research, and Training), who conducted the theory sessions followed by practicals said that the main focus of the workshop was on the technique of producing digital-like quality prints by the screen printing process.

The event included live demos of screen-making, direct-to-garment printing on Grafica’s automatic textile screen printing machine.

Highlighting the workshop focus, Mistry said that DMI, in textile screen printing moire is now a history while scores of printers struggle to come out of this problem which occurs daily because of the use of traditional halftone technique.

At DMI they teach how to print stochastic dots (second generation FM Screening), an alternative solution to achieve moiré-free screen printing. With second generation FM screening they can achieve digital like quality through screen printing. To prove this, a complete workflow, right from designing to screen making to printing were demonstrated.

When they print halftone on garments, it becomes very difficult to control moiré even after using coarser halftone dots like 45 lpi. On the other hand, second generation FM screening totally eliminates moiré in screen printing thus delivers sharp, crispy and brighter images. Even finer and smaller details are clearly visible.

Some of the core topics covered in the workshop include making creative and attractive designs for t-shirt printing. Also direct-to-garment screen printing with different inks, viz, water based, plastisol and high density, special effects.