Screen printing is a printing technique, possibly, we could say that it is the oldest. Today screen printing is still a fairly manual technique where the hand of man intervenes to be able to make the prints, although in recent times it has been modernized with machines. If you are looking for the best screen printing in Dallas service then you are at the right place.
Screen printing is a transfer of the logo or image to print through a mesh called a screen. For each color that is wanted, we need an additional screen. These screens allow ink to pass through to form the desired drawing.
There are several clearly defined types of screen printing, these are the most common and what better way to show you a video with each of them in action
Types of screen printing in Dallas
- MANUAL screen printing
- SEMI-AUTOMATIC screen printing
- CIRCULAR serigraphy
- Screen printing on UMBRELLA
- AUTOMATIC AND TEXTILE screen printing
MANUAL screen printing
In this video you will see an example of manual screen printing, the one of a lifetime, you will see the printing of all transparent pvc holders in one color, where the operator does everything.
The procedure is the next:
- The piece is placed on the base without leaving wrinkles
- The screen is cleaned on the part where it comes into contact with the product so that the impression is perfect
- The ink is applied to the mesh with a spatula.
- It is lightly pressed against the product
- Pass the spatula again to finish impregnating the ink
- And voila! the product is ready for the drying machine
SEMI-AUTOMATIC screen printing
In this video you will see several examples of semi-automatic screen printing, where the operator places the object on the base and the machine does the rest, you will see examples of screen-printed folders, screen-printed toiletry bags, beach coolers and more
The procedure is the next:
- The piece is placed on the base without leaving wrinkles on the iron
- Next, the screen lowers and the squeegee presses down so that the ink is stamped against the material
- Ready! It can now be prepared for the drying machine
CIRCULAR serigraphy
Take a good look at this video, because you will see, for example, how we make personalized water boats , practically covering more than half of the circular surface of the boat with circular stamping.
Screen printing on UMBRELLA
Although it is still a variant of manual screen printing , because as you will see in the video it is, and a lot, it is curious to see how cumbersome it is to handle and dry making screen-printed umbrellas.
AUTOMATIC AND TEXTILE screen printing
This technique deserves a full stop, as it is one of the stars , for example screen-printed t-shirts or screen-printed cotton bags are undoubtedly top-selling star products in our sector. Here you will see examples of automatic screen printing machines, personalizing t-shirts and cotton bags.
Drying tunnel and trays
Once the items have been screen printed , they are placed on trays where they have just dried, or in the case of, above all, screen printed clothing, they go through a drying tunnel of several meters
Screen Printing Process
The process of how an article is printed with the screen printing technique can be somewhat complex, but in summary we have the following steps:
- The creation of the photolith
- Creating the screens
- ink stamping
The creation of the photolith
From the design that has been received, our workshop defragments the design into as many parts as there are colors, thus creating a number of photoliths equal to the number of colors in the design that will serve as the basis for creating the screens of each color that is wants to stamp
Apart from the necessary experience to create the photolithos, it is also very important that the design has quality , that is, that it is vectorized or has a high enough resolution to avoid problems and that it does not lead to bad printing.
Creating the screens
Once we have all the photolithos necessary for printing, we proceed to create the screens. These screens are very handmade, made with a wooden or metal frame and a mesh in the center where the photolithium is represented.
For the creation of the screens we need a special room with red light since the processes that are carried out are sensitive to light. The realization consists of a chemical process called emulsion where liquids are mixed against the photolith and the mesh, in a more or less homogeneous way, perfectly squaring the two objects.
For the emulsion to take effect, the mesh is introduced into an insolator with type A ultraviolet light with fluorescent tubes. When some time has passed the mesh has solidified, it is ready.
Finally, the screen is cleaned to remove the remains of the emulsion.
It should be noted that we have not charged our clients for the costs of photolithics and screens for a long time
ink stamping
We already have everything ready to stamp the design on the article we want. For this process, thanks to some machines, we place the article and the screen where we want the design to be stamped carefully to ensure that all the articles are stamped in the same desired position and orientation.
Finally, when the ink has been applied, we must let it dry , for this it is placed in special trays, or we use a drying “tunnel” in this way we get the ink to be well impregnated with the article and the design does not erased over time.
Disadvantages of screen printing in Dallas
Currently we have small drawbacks, basically due to fixed production costs with traditional screen printing. The cost in time and resources to carry out the process of creating the photolithium and the screen implies:
- The production must be with a minimum of articles otherwise it is not profitable
- Standard screens are for 30×30 cm logos. If you want to make a larger stamping, it can also be done, but it must be taken into account that it is also more expensive.
- The maximum number of colors that can be printed with screen printing is 4, if the design contains more than 4 colors we should use other printing techniques such as digital screen printing or transfer.
In any case, with digital screen printing in Dallas we can make fewer quantities, and overcome many of these limitations. If you want to know more about it, enter our digital screen printing section and you will see everything we can do.
