TSD Honored as Sustainability All-Star

by | Apr 30, 2009 | ,

On March 24th, TSD was honored by Apparel Magazine as one of five Sustainability All-Stars at its Tech Conference West in Irvine, CA. The winners were chosen based upon having taken significant steps toward incorporating sustainable best practices in their businesses.

TSD won this honor alongside sustainability innovators American Apparel, Greensource, Levi Strauss, and Patagonia.

Wanted: Operations Coordinator [FILLED]

by | Apr 16, 2009 |

TS Designs is looking for a fulltime operations coordinator

Responsibilities:

  • Providing support to salespeople and customers for active orders including quoting orders, advising scheduled deliveries, and process limitations
  • Acting as liaison between sales and operations to ensure art, print, and dye schedules are in sync and address customer deadlines
  • Occasional order entry & paperwork organization
  • Occasional weekend travel to trade shows to support sales efforts

Requirements:

  • A four-year degree
  • Knowledge of and experience with general PC applications including Microsoft Office 2007
  • Type 40+ wpm
  • Good organizational skills and attention to detail
  • Ability to multi-task

Send résumé to Eric Henry at eric@tsdesigns.com

Our Inks – An Experiment in Transparency

by | Apr 13, 2009 |

Below are some comparisons of standard plastisol ink contents compared to TSD water-based ink contents. As an obligatory disclaimer, this information is to the best of my knowledge based on what I researched in early 2009.

It’s important to know that not all water-based inks are environmentally friendly and not all plastisol inks are terribly detrimental to the environment. If you’re not printing with TSD, make sure to investigate and verify the composition of your printer’s inks in order to make an enlightened decision. Make sure to get full ink content disclosure from your printer!

There are four basic components of a screenprinting ink:

Pigment – the color. Pigments can either be powders or liquids. Pigments, as opposed to dyes, are not water-soluble.

  • Plastisol and some water-based inks often contain heavy metals in order to make them heavier and more opaque or to increase the light- and wash-fastness of the print. Certain Azo-based pigments contain structures that are suspected to cause health problems.
  • TSD pigments contain only trace heavy metals by design (less than 100ppm, the same as drinking water), but maintain good light- and wash-fastness because of the printing methods used.

Carrier – the vessel for delivering the pigment to the shirt

  • Plastisol inks use a solvent, typically petroleum-based with high VOCs (volatile organic compounds), as a carrier to dissolve the pigment and the binder.
  • Our inks use potable water as a carrier, which suspends the pigment in the mixture rather than dissolving it.

Thickener – keeps the ink from bleeding out onto the shirt after being printed

  • Plastisol inks typically use a synthetic, petroleum-based plastic polymer as a thickener. The most common thickener for plastisol inks is PVC (poly vinyl chloride), which contains phthalates and other chemical additives that can leech out over time.
  • TSD inks use a cellulose-based thickener; in other words, made from wood. It is completely biodegradable.

Binder – binds the pigment to the fiber

  • PVC is the standard binder for plastisol inks. The thickener and binder are often similar PVC chemistries.
  • TSD inks use a synthetic acrylic binder. While it is not rapidly biodegradable, it contains no vinyl structures or functional groups (e.g. chlorine or fluorine), and is entirely inert (thus non-toxic). Elmer’s Glue® is another example of an acrylic binder, one that is chemically almost identical to our binder.

Wanted: Screenprinting Press Loader

by | Mar 31, 2009 |

TS Designs is looking for a fulltime press loader.

Responsibilities:
• Setting up a press for production
• Loading t-shirts onto screenprinting press pallets
• Coordinating a 3-person press team

Requirements:
• Can handle repeated rapid movement
• Good hand-eye coordination
• Detail-oriented

Preferred, but not required:
• Prior screenprinting experience

If interested, contact Shannon Clark at 336.229.6426 x242 or shannon@tsdesigns.com.

TSD in the News: Inauguration T-Shirts

by | Jan 13, 2009 |

The Burlington Times News covers the production of t-shirts for the historical presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.  See the full article here. NOTE: There is a misquote in the article.  Shannon Clark, our production manager, is quoted as saying "This is a lot...

Saving the Big 3

by | Nov 24, 2008 | ,

by Eric Henry and Eric Michel I recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of running my 2000 Volkswagen TDI on locally-made biodiesel. That's over 100,000 miles on a fuel that was made from waste vegetable oil, collected from restaurants right here in Alamance County....

Carolina Farm Stewardship Award

by | Nov 4, 2008 |

On Halloween, Tom and Eric were pleasantly surprised to receive the Business of the Year award from the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association.  CFSA promotes local and organic agriculture in the Carolinas by inspiring, educating, and organizing farmers and consumers.

Visitors at TSD

by | Sep 22, 2008 |

Monday afternoon TS was graced with the presence of Judy Wicks and Lyle Estill. Judy is the founder of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) and Lyle is the founder of Piedmont Biofuels.

Oeko Tex Certification

by | Sep 18, 2008 |

After a lengthy review and testing process, TS Designs is now Oeko-Tex 100 Certified!  The Hohenstein Institute, creators of the Oeko-Tex 100 Standard, reviewed and verified our supply chain, printing and dyeing processes, and final product to ensure that our shirts...

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