Thursday 11 June 2015

Screen Printing – Redefining the Ancient Printing Technique

Among the popular artisans, Screen printing is known as serigraphy, silkscreen, or serigraph printing. The entire screen printing process is observed to be one of the oldest forms of printing which has found great potential to endow several opportunities for future as well. This is due to the fact that this form of printing is driven by asimple idea which hints that it is easily transferable /applicable over a wide range of materials.

As the name suggests, this form of printing involves a screen that is taken into use to keep the ink within defined measures while applyingcolours/ printing a surface. To keep it precise, the areas which are put into the cut out of the screen to let ink seep through over the substrate. These days this printing type has reserved a special place in the modern commercial businesses andis used to produce a number of customised or designer items like printed socks, t-shirts and other garments.

Know How Does It Work

Initial name ‘silkscreen’ was designated to this from of printing since earlier screen printing used screens which were made of silk. But in modern days those screens are now replaced with the ones which are made of synthetic polyester mesh. To begin the process, it is required to pre-process the meshthat is kept immersed in a light-sensitive emulsion and afterwards left for few minutes to dry in a dark-room. As soon as this emulsion gets set, the printer needs to place a dark print-out negative of a pre-decided pattern print, or its non-transparent cut-outs, gently over the mesh. This setting is then kept exposed to strong light which hardens it further, whereas the cut-outs prevent the light from touching the zones through which ink is to be pressed. Once done, printing artist can wash the screen off using water, to rinse away the non-hardened areas, leaving behind non-coated membrane gaps. These gaps can then firmly hold the ink.

Blend of Colors
Screen printing does not allow application of a single color. So, the printing artist has to choose and apply two colors at a time on the same surface. The process will proceed by printing different coloured areas one over the other giving a range of several colour stations. This will result in forming a layer of colour after the other colour without unclamping the press or removing it from mesh.

Screen print on Articles
The key strength and attribute that makes screen printing  stand head over heels above other printing methods is that it can be appalled on any material. It comes handy to experiment as artistic uses on different papers or cards. Further, this printing process has become widely popular across many commercial applications, common one being onto varied clothing materials such as t-shirts, shirts, socks, etc. To impart a fun quotient to a number of novelty items such as balloons, this printing technique has been a great success. This form of printing has been transformed with a high-tech end and is widely used in minisculeitems such as circuit boardsor medical devices.

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