Bangladesh Embellishment Engineers Forum

Screen Printing

Screen Printing

Screen Printing

Definitions of Screen Printing Screen printing is a technique where ink is pushed through a mesh screen using a squeegee, creating an impression on fabric to form a desired image in a specific area. “Screen printing is one kind of technique that’s pass the ink through the screen by the impression of squeegee onto the fabric to receive the desired image in specific area” “Screen printing is the process of transferring a stenciled design onto a flat surface using a mesh screen, ink and a squeegee. Fabric and paper are the most commonly screen-printed surfaces, but with specialized inks it’s also possible to print onto wood, metal, plastic, and even glass.” Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. One color is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multi-colored image or design. Traditionally the process was called screen printing or silkscreen printing because silk was used in the process. It is also known as serigraphy, and serigraph printing.

Mesh

Mesh Mastery:

A comprehensive Guide to Optimal Screen Printing Mesh Selection Part-1 Mesh: Mesh is a key component of Screen Printing. It is also known as Silk Screen mesh. In structure it is a woven fabric. It is the main ingredient of making a screen or stencil through which printing ink is pushed to create different images on different fabrications.  Materials of Mesh: While historically Silk fiber was used for making screen mesh. Modern screen printing mesh are generally made of manmade fibers such as Nylon, Polyester, Stainless Steel. Compared to other synthetic fibers Nylon Mesh is a common choice to most of the printers considering the durability and resistance to the chemicals.  Structure: The structure of mesh fabric refers to the way of interlacement of individual threads to form the fabric. Two popular weave structures ie Plain weave and Twill weave are used for mesh fabric formation. In Plain weave each weft (horizontal) thread passes alternatively over and under each warp (vertical) thread while creating a simple criss-cross pattern. This structure results in a uniform mesh with equal sized square mesh opening. This structure is widely used in screen printing. Twill structure involves a diagonal pattern in which each weft thread passes over a certain number of warp threads before going under. Twill structure is very rare in screen printing but it may be used for specific applications.  During the mesh formation it is followed by some Grid Pattern and the fineness of the weave is measured in threads per inch (TPI) or thread per centimeter (TPC).  The relationship between the structure and mesh fineness is proportional to each other.  Higher the TPI or TPC Finer the mesh. Detailedness of the artwork depends on the fineness of the mesh. Popular Mesh Count:  Mesh Selection Procedure: Choosing the correct mesh count is supper important when it comes for screen printing. In the screen printing, the mesh count refers to the numbers of threads per inch on the screen. The choice of mesh counts depends on numerous factors which includes the types of inks, substrate materials and desired level of outcome of an artwork. Based on the different application of inks mesh selection varies.

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