| What is screen printing? | | | | onto the material, the ink will remain on the printed |
| Introduction: | | | | material and will not smear or move even under |
| Silk-screen printing is one of the oldest but yet the | | | | insensitive conditions. |
| most versatile methods of printing available. With this | | | | If you require more colours onto your final creation, |
| versatility it is possible to print onto a multitude of | | | | then the above process is repeated with different |
| different materials such as paper, board, self | | | | screens. For instance, a design that requires three |
| adhesive vinyls, plastics, metal panels, wood, glass, | | | | different colours, will have three different screens. |
| perspex, corrugated products and textiles, not only | | | | More modern systems will have fully automatic |
| onto flat sheets but directly onto many different | | | | presses that process quickly and don’t require |
| shaped objects. | | | | manual labour, other than for the actual setting up |
| Body: | | | | and supervision. |
| Screen printing, or as it also known silk screening is a | | | | Today inks such as metallics, dayglo, mirror, glitter |
| printing technique which is well matched for surfaces | | | | varnishes and many other special effects can be |
| that are relatively flat. The core of the screen print | | | | used to create your desired effect. . There are |
| process involves a fine mesh, or screen, which is | | | | different ways that screens can be masked. The |
| stretched very tightly around an unyielding frame. | | | | easiest is to apply a masking fluid onto the screen, |
| Any area that is not to be printed, will be masked | | | | which is most suitable for simple colour graphics but is |
| out on this screen or mesh. To create the print, the | | | | not very effective when one wishes to print |
| framed screen is positioned over the item to be | | | | complex prints. For multi-colour printing, printers |
| printed along with a splodge of thick ink. | | | | nowadays use photosensitive emulsions to create the |
| The ink is pressed through the screen. The masked | | | | mask area. A design will be created on clear plastic, |
| areas will prevent any ink from going through. The | | | | then a photosensitive coating is applied to the full |
| areas free from masking will allow the ink to flow | | | | surface of the screen and dried. The plastic film is |
| through and imprint on the material. Finally, the item | | | | positioned onto the dry screen and then exposed to |
| will go through a heat process which ensures that the | | | | light. The exposed area is washed off with water |
| ink dries quickly and that the materials can then be | | | | and the screen is then ready for printing. |
| stacked or packaged. If the ink has cured properly | | | | |