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Ben Adner, Inkcups; and Thomas Szyszko, ASPE

When it comes to apparel decorating, one necessary element is the label. The options are many, from sewn-in labels, pad printing, heat stamping and screen printing. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, challenges and benefits. Here, SGIA spoke with two manufacturers who have tackled the tagless label market to discuss how they do it, the challenges they face , how advances in digital inkjet might affect the market, and the growth potential.

Part 1: Advantages of pad-printing labelsWhen compared to other decorating methods, pad printing tagless labels has found a strong niche with high-volume applications, or when simplicity and efficiency are needed in the production process. Pad printing is a very low-cost

method of applying a label. Two primary markets are served by pad printing:

1. Apparel brand owners, or their contractors, who print “innerware” like T-shirts, underwear, sportswear and other interior garments.

2. Print shops looking to reduce inventory and gain efficiency in the printing process and add value to their customers.

When comparing pad printing tag-free neck labels to heat transfer, screen printing and sewn-in labels, advantages include:

• Speed of operation• Reduced setup time• Instant drying• All image production done in-house

These factors contribute significantly to reducing the per unit cost of the ga rment. Typica l sav ings seen i s between $0.02 - $0.10 per garment. In addition, a pad-printed label has a host

Two Ways to Tackle Tag-Free Labels

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of other benefits, including — improved washability, improved feel or hand, better stretch ability and ability to easily change graphics in-house.

InventoryPad printing can be twice as fast as the other technologies (up to 1000 garments/hour) and the fact that the ink literally is dry as soon as it is printed enables blank goods to be printed in bundles and completed in batches without any other drying operations. Another huge cost savings for pad-printed labels, especially when comparing to heat transfer or sewn-in labels, is the fact that no inventory of labels is required to run production because new graphics can easily be made on site in five to 10 minutes. In fact, the savings are even more dramatic because typically in high-production facilities, one to two full time employees can be managing several hundred thousand dollars of label inventory just to ensure production levels are met. Pad-print inventory consists of a few cans of ink, plates and printing pads — one kilo of ink can print up to 100,000 impressions and has a pot life of two years — unlike heat transfers which have much shorter useful life.

InksInks are a very important part of tag-free pad printing and typically have to pass 50 industrial washes before being approved by the brand owners. The ink used has to be a high-quality pad-printing ink with finely ground pigments to ensure opacity is achieved. Unlike screen printing, which can deposit several thousandths of ink (0.003"–0.010"), pad-printing technology is limited to 0.001"–0.002". It is also critical that the inks, solvents and hardeners be free of heavy metals and harmful chemicals because the ink is up against the skin and can be used on children’s clothing. Before choosing the tagless printing inks, a printer must ensure the supplier can provide independent lab testing that proves the ink is certified to pass: CPSIA, California Proposition 65, Oeko-Tex Standard 100, Namsa and several Brand Restricted Substance List (RSL) tests — Nike, Adidas A01 and Bluesign, to name a few.

In-house Plates (Cliches)The ability to easily make printing plates in-house and the simplicity of changing printed images on garments is a big advantage of pad printing over the other technologies. The best way to make pad-printing plates is to use a direct-to-plate laser system in which graphics can imported digitally to the

laser and then specialized printing plates are engraved in about five to 10 minutes. The resulting plates have excellent detail and, most importantly, have consistent depth and dot patterns, making pad printing a truly repeatable process in a production environment.

When comparing the compact laser platemakers with all of the equipment associated with screen making — pad printing yields big savings on equipment, space, manpower, and time, as well as the benefit of reduced mess. Laser platemakers are a major addition to efficiency improvement and cost savings of pad printing — especially with the new Cobalt low-cost laser platemakers that are available on the market today.

Challenges of Pad Printing Tagless LabelsThere are three important limitations of pad-printing technology to be aware of for tagless label printing:

1. Inability to print a bright white on a dark garment

2. Image size3. Practicality of printing three or

more colors on garments

Inability to Print a Bright White on a Dark GarmentSeveral years of testing — including ink re formu lat ion, pl a tema k ing improvements, specialized pad material development and equipment upgrades — have yielded a nice white ink color, but not a bright white color, on black fabric. The primary limitation in the pad printing process is the inability to pick up more than 0.001"–0.002" of wet ink, which is not enough to make an impact on the absorbent tagless fabrics.

If the ink is allowed to dry on the pad and left on top of the fabric, it yields a brighter white color but it will not pass wash tests. Although the bright white is a limitation, it is important to note that the industry has widely accepted the white that can be achieved, especially when printing on innerware, and taking into consideration the cost savings. Also, many times “cool gray 6” is used as an alternative to white due to its good legibility on a variety of fabric colors, and lack of show-through from the back of the garment.

Image SizeAlthough the vast majority of tagless label images fall within the standard pad-printing machine limits, there are some logos that are outside the standard machine capability. Typical pad printers

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are offered with 90mm inkcups, which enable printing a maximum image size of approximately 75mm in diameter — or a 150mm diameter cup — therefore offering a maximum image of approximately 135mm in diameter.

Practicality of Printing Three or More Colors on Garments In our experience, it really is only practical to print tagless labels in one- and two-color and still gain all the benefits of simplicity, setup time and cost savings that pad printing allows. Three or more colors make:

• The equipment more expensive• Speed of the machine too slow• Setup time and supply costs too high,

especially when compared to heat transfer or sewn-in labels, which get applied with a nice, pre-registered image.

The Future of Tagless Pad PrintingThe apparel market is very large and diverse, with plenty of excellent opportunities for printing on variety of products. The market is expected to be strong for the next few years because of all the advantages pad printing provides, especially with the cost saving it brings. In highly competitive marketplaces, brands all over the world can take advantage of saving money per garment through pad printing, which will fall right to their bottom line. For smaller shops, the simplicity and cost effectiveness of pad printing cannot be overlooked and will continue to grow. Digital technology may come around in the future, but until it can produce a high-volume output with a low-cost machine that includes bright white and no pre- or post-processing, pad printing will be hard to replace.

Benjamin Adner, Founder and President, Inkcups Now Corporation

Inkcups now provides innovative printing equipment supplies and solutions to customers in promotional, apparel and industrial markets worldwide.

www.inkcups.com

Part 2: Advantages of screen printing labels Every garment needs some type of label for legal and transportation purposes. In the past few years, tagless labels have been on the rise as a method of replacing traditional woven labels. Currently, we are seeing companies that print their information on the inside tag of every shirt they print for their customers.

There are a few different methods for applying tagless labels:

• Screen printing • Pad printing• Heat transfer

Small-format screen printing is the only method that can provide a high quality print as well as high speed production. Pad Printing can provide a decent production speed, but retailers are not satisfied with the quality of the print, especially on dark garments. Pad printing is better suited for printing on odd shaped plastics and metals and medical devices, but it isn’t perfect for clothing. Plus, with screen printing you don’t have to routinely clean your pad sponge to ensure a good print. Heat transfers, on the other hand, provide a high quality image but a painfully slow production speed.

Screen Printing TechnologyIn regards to production speed, a

simple equation illustrates the comparison between the three methods:

1 x small-format screen printer = 2 x pad printers = 4 x roll-to-roll transfer presses

What makes screen printing so fast is the delivery system. It does not have a foot pedal on the machine, meaning the machine — and production speed — does not fully rely on the operators. In regards to washability, screen printing has proven to stand up over time, while pad printing can wear away.

Additionally, the screen printer's indexing system is all electronic, and the print heads consume a miniscule amount of air. Each small-format screen printer takes less than 1 cfm. Our typical cost per print is about one to two cents, depending on the job, country, and mesh/ ink.

Moving forward, the small-format labeling system is also proving to be successful on more than just T-shirts. As the market grows to incorporate hats, specialty items and other apparel, it can be customized to print on a wide variety of garments.

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Smaller Size for Smaller CostsA small screen press can also be more cost effective than a traditional screen press that is capable of printing a smaller image. Spending a large amount of money on a large screen press plus a large dryer just to do small images does not make sense. Think of the large press is your main moneymaker. You do not want to bog it down with smaller jobs when you could be using it for larger, more expensive printing. It is wiser to devote a smaller machine for your smaller jobs.

The Future of LabelsDigital decorating is already proving to have an enormous impact on the garment labeling market. Though screen printing has good production speed with a high quality, there is also laborious set up work, waste in ink, and inconsistencies in the printing production process. With digital, you have no set up, no

screen making, no tear down, and most importantly, no waste. On top of that, digital includes software analytics to give you a more accurate cost analysis.

Looking forward, we must concentrate more on our custom machine orders for specialty items, because we are essentially making prototype machines for our customers. Therefore, we must take a lot of time to analyze the machine's long-term performance.

Thomas Szyszko is the Vice President of ASPE Inc., a company that manufactures high speed printing machines for the clothing and promotional product industries. Over a few short years, ASPE has grown the company from a small garage to have sales and distribution in over 60 different countries in six continents. Their machines are now being used by all the big time brands, contract, and promotional companies.

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