Special Tees a Staten Island, New York Not for Profit Business is a full service, Custom Screen Printers Shop. Offering Screen Printing, Embroidery, Advertising Specialties and more.

Special Tees Services and Products

Screen Printing

Screen printing is arguably the most versatile of all printing processes. It can be used to print on a wide variety of substrates, including paper, paperboard, plastics, glass, metals, fabrics, and many other materials. including paper, plastics, glass, metals, nylon and cotton. Some common products from the screen printing industry include posters, labels, decals, signage, and all types of textiles and electronic circuit boards. The advantage of screen printing over other print processes is that the press can print on substrates of any shape, thickness and size. Special Tees has two types of Screen Printing; Silk Screening and Digital Printing.

Silk Screening

Screen printing or silk screening is a printing technique particularly suited for flat or relatively flat surfaces. The heart of the process involves a fine mesh or screen that is tightly stretched around a rigid frame. The areas that are not to be printed are masked out on the screen. To create the print, the framed screen is positioned over the item to be printed along with a dollop of thick ink. A squeegee is then used to press the ink through the screen. The masked areas prevent ink from passing through, but the unmasked areas allow the ink to be imprinted on the material. The final step is to send the item on a conveyor belt through a heat-tunnel. This curing process ensures that the inks dry quickly so that they materials can be stacked or packaged. Properly cured inks will remain on the printed substrate even under harsh conditions.

Special Tees offers No Minimums on White or Light Colored Shirts and a Low Minimum of 12 on Dark Colored Shirts.

Special Tees offers Quantity Discounts on all Silk Screened Orders.

Digital Printing

Digital printing is the reproduction of digital images on physical surface, such as cloth, plastic, etc. The Ink or Toner does not absorb into the material, as does conventional Ink, but forms a layer on the surface. It generally requires less waste in terms of chemicals used and clean up between runs. It is excellent for rapid prototyping, or small print runs which means that it is more accessible to a wider range of applications.

Special Tees uses two Brother GT-541 Digital Garment Printers. This printer uses ink jet technology that prints on many garments in high quality color directly from a computer. This ink jet garment printer delivers great print quality and still remain cost-effective for short-run apparel graphics applications.

The GT-541 is faster and less expensive to operate than traditional screen printing machines because there is minimal set-up, tear-down, clean-up, screens, squeegees, or pallet adhesive. The GT-541 water based ink is quickly and easily cured by a standard heat press. Curing allows the garment to be washed the ink is very durable in most cases equal to or better than Screen Printing.

Special Tees offers No Minimums on White or Light Colored Shirts.

Special Tees offers Quantity Discounts on all Digitally Printed Orders.

Embroidery

Custom embroidery is a decorative embellishment, usually on fabric, created with a needle and thread, usually on a computer controlled sewing machine, that depicts a graphic and/or descriptive text. Today, this means adding dollar value to garments by embellishing them with names, corporate logos and sports symbols, to name a few. Embroidery is more than fashion or trend. It has been a form of class distinction since the days of the Egyptian Pharaohs. A custom embroidery design is generally several thousand stitches using several different colors of thread. Specialized embroidery machines have been designed to work with data from a computer. This data instructs the machine to stitch a particular design, determines the correct stitching order, indicates when to trim threads, and many other functions. In only a few minutes, the computerized embroidery machine will stitch a design that would take your grandmother a week to do by hand…and embroider with precision accuracy that no human can match for near perfect quality! Although the actual sewing of the embroidery process is usually computer controlled, the art of creating the pattern, called "digitizing" will ultimately determine the end quality of the embroidery.

A custom embroidery design is usually designed from one of the following sources:

Graphic or logo (may include text)
Existing stock design (may have text added)
Text design only

Special Tees offers Quantity Discounts on all Embroidered Orders.

Tackle Twill

Tackle twill, or applique, involves the sewing down of material, usually a nylon twill, to clothing. Originally, the twill was laid down and sewn with a sewing machine one letter at a time and was necessarily simple to do. Letters and basic shapes were generally involved. It was time consuming, not always uniform and limited in scope to lettering and perhaps a symbol of some sort. But at least it was inexpensive.

Lots of clothing was done this way. Baseball uniforms and school names could be done easily and even split front uniforms were a simple task.

Today, using embroidery machines, complex combinations of embroidery and twill can be used to create intricate, 3-dimensional designs that are large, inexpensive and absolutely gorgeous. It takes time to digitize them.

Special Tees offers Quantity Discounts on all Tackle Twill Orders.

 

Ink Sublimation

Dye Sublimation, as a process is really very simple. It is the method of applying an image to specially coated ceramics, metals and polyester cloth, using three main ingredients: sublimation ink, heat and pressure.

Sublimation ink is unique in its ability to convert from a solid to a gas without going through a liquid form. (Just like dry ice.) The conversion is initiated by heat and controlled with pressure and time. Hard items such as ceramic, fiber board, metals, etc. requires a special coating to accept the sublimation inks. When you apply to 100% polyester (ie: our mouse pads and puzzles) you do not need any coating, it is applied directly to the 100% polyester fabric.

Special Tees offers Quantity Discounts on all Ink Sublimated Orders.

Imprinting or Advertising Specialties

This style of printing uses other various methods based on what is being customized. Often thought of when designing advertising and marketing materials like styling or customizing Pens, Mugs, Golf balls, Golf flags, etc. This style is made up of the many methods that exist. For example Pad Printing is used to put a company logo onto a pen, while screen printing would be used to create golf flags or pennants.

Special Tees offers Quantity Discounts on all Imprinted Orders.

Remember come to Special Tees in Staten Island, New York for all your Custom Screen Printing needs. Offering Screen Printing, Embroidery, Advertising Specialties and more.