What is Screen Printing?

What is Screen Printing? In screen printing a pattern is printed onto fabric through a stencil held in place by a screen. Each screen prints one part of the design in one colour. After printing the dyestuff must be fixed using steam or dry heat. Manual flat-bed screen printing 1. Mesh is stapled to a frame to make a screen. 2. Masking tape is stuck to the underside of the screen. Manual flat-bed screen printing is a slow process, done by hand. It is used by designer-makers for complicated fabric designs or for small runs. 3. A stencil is made from paper. 4. The stencil is placed under the screen but on top of the paper. 1 4 5. Ink is poured at one end of screen. 6. A squeegee is used to press down and draw ink across screen. 7. The screen is carefully lifted. 8. The print is checked before the process is repeated. Industrial flat-bed screen printing Industrial flat-bed printing automates this process, with the fabric moved through the machine on a conveyor belt and the print repeating rapidly. The blanket carries the fabric under the screens. Squeegee Once under the screens, fabric stops, screens lowered. Automatic squeegee trough moves across each screen, pushing print paste through the design or open areas of the Squeegee screens. The screens are raised, the blanket precisely moves the fabric to the next colour, and the process is repeated. Once each colour has been applied, the fabric is removed from the blanket and then processed through the required fixation process. White fabric Screen Screen IConveyor Rotary screen printing Rotary screen printing uses CAD and roller squeegees. One roller is used for each colour. This is a very fast process used in the continuous printing of furnishing and clothing fabrics. Rotary screen printing is so named because it uses a cylindrical screen that rotates in a fixed position rather than a flat screen that is raised and lowered over the same print location. Rotary presses place the squeegee within the screen. These machines are designed for roll-to-roll (web) printing on flexible materials ranging from narrow web films to wide-format roll textiles. rotary printing is a continuous, stepless image- transfer method. The geometry of the screen and the position of the squeegee within the screen combine to provide both the screen- flooding and image-transfer functions in a single smooth operation that repeats with every revolution of the screen. Colour reservoir Fabric Roller squeegee Visit our Facebook pages by clicking here 01423 358 989 www.steve-wood.co.uk WOOD f [email protected] SCREEN Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/design/textiles/productiontechniquesrev2.shtml https://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/tag/flat-screen-printing/ http://www.screenweb.com/content/get-production-rolling-with-rotary-screen-printing#.VBCPQ- JVHHW STEVE SERVICES