Decoration#3 Screen Print

Thursday, 13 October 2011

Hi guys,

Last time we discussed the basics of Pad Printing, so now we’ll attempt to explain another common printing technique – Screen Printing. We hope this provides you with some insight into the process and what you need to know.

What is screen printing?

Screen printing is a printing technique used on flat or relatively flat surface items. It can be used to print on a wide variety of substrates, including paper, plastics, glass, metals, fabrics, and many other materials.

The process involves a fine mesh screen that is tightly stretched around a rigid wooden frame. A mask is then applied to the areas on the screen that are not to be printed. The screen is then positioned over the item and ink is pressed through the unmasked areas of the screen using a squeegee. The masked areas prevent ink from passing through, but the unmasked areas allow the ink to be imprinted on the material. The item is then sent through a heat-tunnel to be cured/dried.

What determines the cost of screen printing?

The cost of screen printing is based on three things; the amount of ink coverage, the number of colours to be printed, and the colour of the item to be printed on.

Larger prints will generally be more expensive than smaller prints because more ink is needed to achieve an acceptable result.

Each colour to be printed requires a separate screen to be prepared. Therefore, a design that requires four different colors would require four different screens, also incurring four separate setup charges.

Repeat jobs also incur repeat set up charges (less than initial set up charges) due to cleaning, storage and retrieval of the screens.

Screen printing on darker items may sometimes require a base print to ensure that the colour is vibrant. A base color (usually white) is applied and cured before the subsequent colours are printed on top. As a result, printing on dark items is more expensive.

The screen printing process:

1)    Footprint provides the screen printer with the clients EPS artwork of what they wish to have printed.
2)    The printer transfers a "picture" of the artwork into an "image".
3)    Emulsion (mask) is applied to screen fabric.
4)    Image is chemically processed (burnt) onto the screen fabric.
5)    Fabric is mounted onto screen & loaded into printing press.
6)    Screen is placed over the material to be printed.
7)    Ink is placed onto the top of the screen, then forced down through the fine mesh openings using a squeegee. **Ink only passes through areas where no stencil is applied, thus forming an image on the item.
8)    Printed item placed on conveyor belt for curing.

Check out this clip here to see how screen printing works.

Until next time, take it easy...

Related Tags

Decoration Techniques