Design of Sototex Printing Table for Textile Printing
Chapter One
AIM, AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim of this study is to construct a durable standard printing table that would be made of metal. Also to solve the difficulties students face in having to take turns to use the only available printing table, and to proffer solution to the issue of registration with the introduction of the rail and stop system at the edge of the table, to enable accuracy and efficiency in printing. It is hoped that this study will help make the task of printing less stressful and more precise for the textile students of university of Benin.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Textile printing does not have a universally acceptable definition but according to Wikipedia printing can be referred to as another part of wet processing technology as it involves the use of attractive definite patterns on fabric or other materials printing is carried out after pretreatment of fabric, or after dyeing with dyes or pigments applied locally or discontinuously, to produce the various attractive designs on fabrics. The main objective of printing is the production of designs with well-defined boundaries made by the artistic arrangement of a motif or motives in one or more colours. Printed fabrics are well protected from friction and washing if dyes or pigments are properly applied on fiber with the use of binding agent, a strong bound is formed between the dyes and the fibers
Wikipedia further states that there are seven distinct methods of printing presently used to impress coloured patterns on fabrics they includes
- Hand Block Printing
- Perrotine printing
- Engraved copperplate printing
- Roller, cylinder, machine printing
- Stencil printing
- Digital printing
- Screen printing digital printing
- Other types of printing are Blotch printing, Air brush printing, Electrostatic printing, photo printing etc.
HAND BLOCK PRINTING
„Block printing is believed to have originated in China towards early 3rd century. Records of its presence in Egypt and some Asian countries were also found around the 4th century, from where it spread to Europe and other places (Wikipedia). Apart from wood, blocks were made of metals and porcelain also. But wooden block remains the most sought after apart from metal ones which have gained popularity in recent times. In hand block printing, the design is first drawn on wood using a sharp needle and then the desired design is carved using the chisel, hammer, file, nails etc. The printing involves laying the cloth or fabric, which is to be printed, on flat tables and impressions are made using the beautifully carved blocks. In case of direct printing, the block is dipped in the colored dye and impressions are made. The block image remains unprinted and reappears in reverse. Traditionally natural and vegetable sources were used for dyes. But with the advent of synthetic dyes, things have changed, not necessarily for good. The ease of usage and the availability of synthetic dyes have replaced the vegetable dye in many cases‟
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHOD AND MATERIALS
Sourcing of primary data was through personal interactions with resource persons the internet was the major source of the secondary data. Another major source of information for this research is the virtual reference of the printing table in the textile studio Yaba College of Technology; the table is a full metal table with the capacity to print ten yards.
CHAPTER FOUR
CONSTRUCTION PROCESS
The construction of the printing table is a fusion of metal and carpentry work, the base of the table consisting of the legs and frame is made of metal while the surface of the table is made of wood and foam wrapped with jean fabric.
The metal frame of the table is divided into 3 segments or sections each having 4 legs for easy movement. The measurement of the metal frame of one segment is 5ft for the width and 6ft for the length, making the total length of the table 18ft when the segments are joined together. The surface of the table is made of 1inch plywood and 1 /2 inch foam with a jean fabric for the covering.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
This research investigated the problems encountered in textile printing, screen printing process. A major determinant of the outcome of a printed fabric is the printing table. A table without a good guide for registration would produce a poorly finished product, as a result of imperfect registration of impressions. This is the problem the students have to contend with in the textile studio. This study has been a quest to construct a standard printing table, that would solve the difficulties faced by students while printing, proffering a solution to the issues of registration, with the introduction of a rail and stop system for accuracy and efficiency. The researcher has been able to proffer a solution to imperfect registration in screen printing by the construction of printing table with a guide with the use of stops to actualize accuracy of registration.
CONCLUSION
Screen printing is a very interesting kind of fabric design. In manual screen printing the major material for designing a fabric is the printing table. Every printing table needs a guide in which it could be used to actualize a work free from imperfect registration. If the students can understand the rail and stop system and follow the instructions of the use of the printing table, imperfect registration of printed fabrics would be a thing of the past. As a suggestion for future furtherance of this research I would advise that the researcher ensures procurement of the right materials for construction to avoid creating more problem as the surface of the printing table must be made as flat as possible. One of the problems we encountered is not having the wooden material and the foam for the surface the intended size we wanted. However, this problem was surmounted by effectively joining the ply boards and foams together, leaving little or no trace of unevenness on the surface of the table it is hoped that SOTOTEX printing table would bring proficiency to textile printing.
REFRENCE
- Arthur M. Hind, p, Houghton Mifflin 1963 “An Introduction to a History of Woodcut” Dover Publications (in USA), retrieved 20 July 2016
- Chisholm, Hugh (1911) Cambridge university press (history of hand block printing retrieved 1 August 2016
- Chengri printing machine www.wxchengri.com retrieved 5August 2016
- Fashion incubator.com “introduction to digital fabric printing” retrieved 20 July 2016 Giuliana Zuccaro “The art of original engraving” www.acquaforte.it/en/ retrieved 5August 2016
- Haubold GmbH, Chemnitz (1909) Double sided Perrotine printing machine retrieved 25 July 2016
- http://www.craftandartisans.com/hand-block-printing retrieved 22 June 2016
- https://en.wikipedia.org>wiki>screenprinting retrieved 20 July 2016
- J.I.Biegeleisen “The complete book of silk screen printing production” Dover publications
- Tozer and Levitt, Fabric of Society, p. 27 1983 https://en.wikipedia.org.>wiki>textileprinting retrieved 20 July 2016 www.bbc.co.uk. (picture of roller printing) retrieved 16 August 2016
- Wendy Finn “history of screen printing” www.brighthub.com/members/wendyfin.aspx retrieved 2 August 2016
- www.lameth.com>lesson>art-copperplate (engraved copperplate printing) retrieved 20 July 2016
- www.teoline.com.textile/process (digital printing) retrieved 2 August 2016.
