Saturday, October 17, 2009

Process Of Screen Printing

By Raymond Sung

Screen printing is a technique in which the ink is directly applied to the surface that is to be printed and this surface is called substrate. The image that is to be printed is transferred photographically to the screen in such a way that the areas not be printed is blocked and the fabric is used as a stencil. A roller moves across the screen stencil, pumping ink over the threads of the woven net in the open areas.

Silk screening or serigraphy also involves screen printing. In this, the stencil method of the print making imposes a design on the screen of silk or any other fine mesh and the empty areas are covered with an impermeable substance while the ink is put on the printing surface through the mesh. The silk printing was the traditional method but now it has been replaced with the polyester for screen painting.

During the reign of Song dynasty in China, the screen printing appeared in the recognizable form. Japan and other Asian countries started using this printing method and advanced it further by using this in conjunction with paints and block printing. Asia introduced screen painting to the Western Europe in the late 1700s but screen painting was not used widely in the Europe due to unavailability of silk mesh here and it started gaining wider acceptance when silk mesh on trade with Asia became easily available and also, other mediums that could be used were developed.

The screen printing in the United Sates became popular when the artist Andy Warhol screen printed Marilyn Monroe in year 1962 in the garish colors. In year 1960, the American entrepreneur, inventor and artist Michael Vasiltone developed and patented a rotary multicolor garment screen printing machine. He used this rotary machine to manufacture and print information of bowling on different garments but soon he turned his attention on printing team logos and information on t-shirts. This soon led to led a boom in t-shirt screen printing business and many more manufacturers licensed from him in order to print on t-shirts. The rotary garment screen printing machine became the most popular device used in the screen printing industry.

The screen printing business flourished and became a profitable industry. It was adopted by the artists to express and they used it to duplicate their works and they have been using it before 1900s. Currently, it is popular both in the commercial printing and fine arts industry. It is commonly used print images on the T-shirts, CDs, DVDs, hats, glass, ceramics, polyethylene, paper, polypropylene, wood and metals.

Screen printing is used extensively in the printing industry to mass create so many items specifically tshirts. It is excellent for both short and long-run printing. For large volumes the process can be set up on a printing drum but for small runs a simple manual setup can be used.

Large and small corporate give gifts to their employees and clients in appreciation of their work and also to motivate the employees to perform better. The Corporate gifts are usually screen printed with the company logo and some motivational sentiments. The corporate gifts are given at the time of holidays like Christmas and New Year. There are many different types of corporate gifts like t-shirts, bags, glasses and like. The screen printed t-shirts are also given to the employees during the annual events of the corporate.

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