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#168 Production Technology Level-up Course For Machine Designers - 4: Screen Printing Technology

Category : Production Technology
September27, 2013
(1) Screen printing

Screen printing, as used in *Print Gocco, is a simple printing method. The printing scheme uses a stencil (silk screen) mounted on a printing medium with a through hole that transcribes the ink. A rubber spatula (called Squeegee) is used to transcribe the ink through holes onto a printing medium located below the printing plate.

*Print Gocco: A self-contained compact color (screen) printing system for households invented in 1977 by Noboru Hayama, becoming popular in Japan.

[Fig.1] Explanation diagram of screen printing


(2) Characteristic of screen printing

Advantages:

(1)Since it uses cloth printing plate, squeegee pressure is very low.
(2)Due to (1) above, printing on curved surfaces is possible.
(3)Relatively thick print layers are possible... 3 dimensional texture, etc.
(4)Since it is fundamentally sheet-fed, setup change is easy.
(5)Adopts well to printing medium materials.

Disadvantages:

(6)Inferior to other printing methods such as flexography in ink degradation (drying, etc.), and printing plate durability, etc.
(7)Limited in printing accuracies.
(8)Since the printing plate and printing medium come in contact, accidental ink depositing on places other than the through hole, etc. cannot be avoided.

(3) Application examples
・Living goods...Toys, stationary, containers, clothes printing
・Industrial goods... Printed circuits, thin film ICs, adhesive application on LCDs, scale labels

[Photo 1] Adhesive printing on LCD seal


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