More commonly known as silk screening, screen printing is a multi-surface printing technique to transfer ink through a mesh screen to apply prints. The process involves several stages through which one can achieve beautiful and detailed prints. Below is the overview of how screen printing is done mostly:
1. Design Creation:
The first thing that one has to do when carrying out screen printing is designing what is to be printed onto the substrate. The design usually comes as a printed or hand-drawn form of the artwork or image.
2. Screen Preparation:
A mesh screen preferably made from polyester, nylon, or stainless steel tightly stretches over a frame to make it taut for printing.
The screen is then sensitized with light-sensitive emulsion which hardens under lightening to get developed stencil areas for the design.
3. Image Exposure:
- This image designed above is printed onto a transparent film or vellum.
- The film is placed on top of the coated screen, and both are exposed to ultraviolet light in a vacuum frame.
- The light hardens the emulsion except where the design is blocking it, creating a stencil on the screen.
4. Screen Washing:
Upon exposure, the screen is to be washed out by running water or some specific solution through it. It would wash out the not-hardened emulsion and thus reveals the stencil design on the screen itself.
5. Printing Setup:
The screen is mounted on the printing press, while the fabric, paper, or plastic substrate is placed below the screen.
It has registration marks to accurately align the screen to the substrate, allowing for precision printing.
6. Ink Application:
- Above the design area, the ink is poured onto the screen.
- It is through this that a squeegee pulls together the ink across the screen squeezing it through the stencil and onto the substrate base’s surface.
- The squeegee is moved in a smooth and consistent motion to ensure even coverage of the ink.
7. Printing Process:
The squeegee is lifted, and the screen is raised to reveal the printed design on the substrate.
The substrate is sent to the drying area where the inks cure or dry completely.
8. Repeat for Multi-color Prints:
To produce multi-color prints, therefore, another screen must be printed and used for each of these colors.
In addition, there are registration marks that would align the colors properly on the previous layer.
9. Curing the Print:
In this case, depending on the ink used, the printed substrate will either be heat set or cured using a heat press, conveyor dryer, or other curing methods. This is to make sure that the ink would have durability and a longer life.
10. Finishing and Quality Check:
The completely cured print is then retouched, such as its overabundance or checking quality.
Final quality control checks are done to ensure that the last print complies with the standards desired before packaging or further processing.
It is one versatile and most common printing method that could give you high-quality prints on many substrates, which is why printing in apparel, signs, or art prints has found it useful. The screen printing process takes a lot of attention to detail, precision, and practice to become an expert in consistency and professionalism.