Embracing Automated Screen Printing

This post used to be about our automatic press. The honest version is shorter. Since January 2023 we have shipped four screen-print orders. In the same window we ran 2,037 embroidery lines. Almost everything that leaves this building is stitched, and the press exists for the jobs where thread is the wrong tool.

Why the floor tipped to thread

• Gift shop buyers reorder embroidery. 132 of the 159 accounts that bought in 2025 had bought in a previous year, and the average account placed 4.7 orders.
• A stitched full front reads as a keepsake. Full-front placements are 235,125 units since 2023, 58.7 percent of everything we shipped.
• The artwork library is built for thread. 914 designs, 2,666 thread recipes, 233 Gunold colours on the rack. See the numbers.

Screen print still earns its place for one kind of job: a full-front photographic image with a lot of colour on a light tee. The screen-print bear paw is the example in the catalogue. Four orders in three and a half years is not a product line, so we do not pitch it as one.

What the press does well

When a job does go on the press, automation is the reason the result is consistent. Off-contact, squeegee pressure and flash temperature are set once and held for the run. Registration stays tight, misprints stay low, and the reclaim cycle is short.

What we tell buyers

If the artwork is line art, wildlife, lettering or a namedrop, it is an embroidery job and it will look like the rest of your wall. If it is a photograph, ask us and we will tell you whether the press or the embroidery program serves it better. Colours for either method come off the same garment colour card.