Silk Screen Printing

SilkScreen Printing

Silk screenprinting is one of the most commonly used printing techniques. The printing onthe packaging is achieved by forcing a thick ink-paste (5) evenly through themesh of the screen (3) with a special plastic blade (1). A fine mesh materialis stretched over a wooden or metal frame (2) to form the print screen. Thescreen can be of silk, synthetic or metal that is coated with special polymer.The required text or logo is transferred to the screen from a negative. Theunexposed areas (4) remain soft and washable, while the exposed areas hardenout to form an ink impermeable coating on the screen. During the printingprocess, the ink is stencilledthrough these soft "open" parts of the screen onto the packagingproduct. Finally the printed articles (6) are run through a heated chamber fordrying. In the case of Polyethylene (PE) products, these must always be prewarmed by "flaming"the articles, so as to achieve good print adhesion.

Silk screen printingoffers many advantages, like brilliant colors, long term storage period, lowcost, ease of use, etc. However, high ink density is the most significant one.Compared with other printing techniques, it allows a greater thickness of theink to be applied to the stock. In addition, silk screen printing can be usedto print on most surfaces, whether a flat, spherical or concave/convex surface.In addition, it is suitable for both soft and hard products.