Types of Screen Printing, and Its Use

Types of Screen Printing, and Its Use

Screen printing is a manufacturing process to transfer text, images, or text images both printing into a t-shirt or other piece of clothing. It required a stencil to create a fine mesh screen. By using a squeegee the ink is applied on the fabric. At first, the ink will go through the openings of the stencil and make the desired design on the fabric. Screen printing is vastly popular for creating the custom design t-shirt and other garments. It can do brighter prints even on darker materials. Here I present Types of Screen Printing and Its Use.

Screen printing, also known as silk screening or serigraphy, is a versatile printing technique used to transfer ink onto various materials such as fabric, paper, metal, plastic, and glass. There are different types of screen printing methods based on the specific requirements and desired outcomes.

Working Principle of Screen Printing

The technique of screen printing involves pressing ink through a fine mesh screen onto a substrate. The mesh fabric is lied over the fabric then a stencil is applied to it. Then the ink is pressed onto the fabric through the mesh screen. The whole process is done by the squeegee to force the ink through the mesh.

Types of Screen Printing

These are the types of Screen Printing:

1. Flatbed Screen Printing

This is the traditional method of screen printing where a frame with a mesh screen is placed flat on the substrate. Ink is pushed through the screen using a squeegee, and the desired image or design is transferred onto the material.

2. Rotary Screen Printing

In this method, the screen is cylindrical and rotates continuously. The substrate moves beneath the rotating screen, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the material. Rotary screen printing is often used for high-volume production and is capable of printing at high speeds.

3. Overprinting

Overprinting involves printing multiple layers of ink on top of each other to create complex designs, shading, or color mixing. Each layer of ink is dried or cured before applying the next layer. This technique allows for the creation of vibrant and detailed prints.

4. Spot Color Printing

Spot color printing involves using premixed inks to achieve specific colors. Each color in the design is separated into individual screens, and ink is applied through these screens one color at a time. Spot color printing is commonly used for logos, text, and designs that require precise color matching.

5. Four-Color Process Printing

Also known as CMYK printing, four-color process printing is used to reproduce full-color images or photographs. It uses four primary ink colors—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK)—to create a wide range of colors through color mixing and halftone patterns. Each color is printed using a separate screen, and the overlapping dots create the illusion of continuous tones and shades.

6. Discharge Printing

Discharge printing involves using special inks that remove or discharge the existing dye from a colored fabric. The ink contains a discharge agent that reacts with the fabric dye, effectively bleaching out the color. This method is often used on dark-colored garments to achieve soft and vintage-looking prints.

7. Heat Transfers

Heat transfers involve printing the design onto a special transfer paper and then using heat and pressure to transfer the ink from the paper onto the material. This method is commonly used for printing on fabrics, such as t-shirts, and allows for detailed and full-color prints. 

Outlines of Screen Printing

1. Design Creation: The first step in screen printing is creating the design. This is often done with a computer graphic design program, such as Adobe Illustrator. The artwork is then printed onto a transparency film.
2. Screen Preparation: In this method, we prepare the screen for printing. This involves stretching a mesh screen over a wooden frame, coating the mesh with a photosensitive emulsion, and burning the artwork into the emulsion with a light source.
3. Printing:  Once the screen has been prepared, it is ready for printing. Ink is rolled onto the screen and then pushed through the mesh with a squeegee. The ink is then transferred onto the substrate, such as a t-shirt. It offers stylish fished products.
4. Clean Up:  Once the printing is complete, the screen must be cleaned and the excess ink must be removed from the screen and substrate.
5. Drying: The final step is to dry the substrate and let the ink cure. This is usually done with a heat press or other drying device.

Screen Printing Using Place

Screen printing is used for a lot of purposes that included printing on textiles, promotional materials, and labels. It is commonly used to print designs on t-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, mugs, and other items. Screen printing can be used to produce artwork, logos, and text on a wide range of objects.

Where we can use Screen Printing:

• 1. T-shirt
• 2. Mugs
• 3. Bags
• 4. Sweatshirts
• 5. Hats
• 6. Posters
• 7. Boxes
• 8. Flyers
• 9. Medical Devices
• 10. Key chains

There are many more places where we are using screen printing. It is easy to print and many entrepreneurs are working and making money by doing screen printing. 

Why Screen Printing is great?

Because of its versatility screen printing is better than other techniques. It is vastly popular for t-shirt printing. By using this screen printing you can easily make the image, and text printed on the t-shirt. Screen printing is relatively easy to learn and most cost-effective. That makes the screen printing great.

• 1. Cost effective: To do anything what first comes to our mind? Money. Whatever we want to do at first we think about the cost. Compared to other printing methods screen printing is more cost-effective. This is because once you set up the stencil you can use it repeatedly on as many similar products as you want.
• 2. Fast: By using screen printing we can print very fast. If we compare the printing time of other printing processes to screen printing it’s almost 0.5% minimum faster than other processes.
• 3. Versatile: Another important advantage of screen printing is its versatility. Like one stencil you can print multiple types of printing.
• 4. Efficient: The process of screen printing is very easy. There are not many complicated processes involved. That’s why it’s more efficient.
• 5. High-quality print: Cost-effectively it produces better printing quality than other printing processes. 

Now a day’s new printing processes or methods are coming. But nothing is more easy and more cost effective than screen printing.  Although screen printing is one of the oldest methods of printing still remains one of the most reliable printing methods. That’s all on types of Screen Printing, and Its Use.