samedi 17 octobre 2009

The Screen Printing Process

By Stephen 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.

Screen painting is the technique developed by the Chinese almost 2000 years back and the screen was made of human hair stretched across a wooden frame. The Japanese developed it further by using the woven silk as mesh and lacquers as stencils. Europe adopted this technique much later as it involved silk which was not available in the Europe.

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 printing on the canvas with the help of the screen-printing also became popular with the artists. Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and many other artists have made use of screen-printing on the canvas. The commercial as well as the fine arts industry is using this screen printing industry to increase their profits and they use it to make prints on the CD and DVD covers, t-shirts, hats and also on the metals and many more things.

The first industrial screen printing process was patented in 1907 and many years later, John Pilsworth of San Francisco introduced the multi-color printing using the same screen. In this, the different screen areas were blocked for different color inks and a multi-colored image was produced. This technique is popular in printing signs and posters.

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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