Origins - A Journey in Water-Based Screen Printing

It’s no surprise that our schedule is influenced greatly by that of an academic calendar due to the amount of universities we work with nationwide! We use our summer season to strengthen all facets of who we are. From team culture to production systems, we take a lot of deep breaths preparing for undoubtedly our busiest time of the year, fall!

With that in mind, we are over the moon about all that’s going on at B-Unlimited this summer! (Don’t worry. We plan to keep you in the loop - always.) July 10^th – 12^th we will be hosting a conference, Origins - A Journey in Water-Based Screen Printing, alongside some of the best partners in the screen printing market. At first glance water-base screen printing sounds new and revolutionary, but in reality it’s where screen printing all started. Along the way new methods emerged, but only leading to harmful effects and diminishing quality. We arrived at the name Origins for our conference to dive in and get back to where screen printing all started, water-base screen printing. This will hopefully be the first of many events like this for us!

We believe every person has a responsibility to uphold as we occupy this planet and consume it’s resources.

With the apparel industry being one of the largest contributors to our Earth’s pollution issue, we feel that a step in the respectable direction is to print with water-based ink to reduce the use of harsh chemicals and the need for more petroleum-based products. This responsibility lead us to investigate the world of water-based printing.

 So, back to Origins! That’s the academy we’re hosting this summer… just in case you’ve forgotten. Alongside our sponsors: MagnaColours, Graphic Solutions, Kiwo Coatings, M&R Print Company, and Newman Roller Frames we will be educating companies from all over about a future printing with water-based inks.

When it comes to screen printing, there are two major options: water-based and plastisol (PVC). Plastisol screen printing is a type of screen printing in which a layer of ink is printed on top of a garment. This method lacks breathability and will eventually lead to cracking and peeling. Unfortunately, we all have that one shirt that we love that we can no longer wear because the design has begun to peel off.  Alongside these effects, plastisol screen printing has an unfortunate effect on the environment and the user. The clean-up process of plastisol ink releases fumes that have a negative impact on the environment and production employees. On the back end, the disposal of excess ink and waste of all petroleum-based products can cause harm to the environment.

Good news - there’s another option, and that’s why we are hosting Origins!

It has taken us many years of investment, but we are proud to say that we are close to 100% transitioned to water-based screen printing. We have to admit, it has not been an easy journey. For this reason, we want to bring other companies alongside us so that we can pass along all that we’ve learned about water-based screen printing.

Investing in the future of our environment and the success of other screen printing operations is important to us. By lifting others through education, we believe that Origins Academy will be a great success.Registration and purchase of tickets can be found at b-unlimited.com/origins. Early registration pricing ends on June 1^st. If you have any questions about us, or our journey drop us a line at hello@b-unlimited.com.