The traditional screen printing is to stretch high tension screen cloth, synthetic fiber fabric or metal mesh on the screen frame, and make screen printing plates by hand engraving paint film or photochemical plate making. Modern screen printing technology has been improved. It uses photosensitive materials to make screen printing plates by photolithography. During printing, the ink is transferred to the substrate through the mesh of the image and text part through the extrusion of the squeegee, forming the same image and text as the original. In order to adapt to the increasingly fierce market competition and meet more and higher requirements of customers, silk screen printing technology has been rapidly improved and upgraded in recent decades. Compared with other printing methods, it mainly presents the following five characteristics.

Applicable to various types of inks

The wide range of inks that can be used in screen printing has exceeded the definition of ordinary inks, including paste, paste, paint, adhesive and solid powder. Therefore, silk screen printing inks are sometimes referred to as "printing materials". In addition, compared with other printing methods, screen printing does not require very high fineness of pigment particles in the ink. As long as the ink and paint can pass through the mesh fineness of the screen, they can be used.

Good outdoor performance

Because screen printing is applicable to a wide range of inks, it can use inks added with light resistant pigments or fluorescent pigments, so that the pictures and texts of the printed matter are not affected by temperature and sunlight, and can maintain luster, and even glow at night. This feature determines that screen printed products can be used for advertising and signs outdoors.

Not restricted by enterprises

Screen printing, like lithography, relief printing and intaglio printing, can be industrialized and mass produced. At the same time, it also has the incomparable characteristics of the other three printing methods, such as convenient plate making, cheap price, flexible and diverse printing methods, and easy to master technology. Therefore, it is not limited by the size of enterprises, and even individual operation is feasible.

Wide printing range

Screen printing has great flexibility and wide applicability. Screen printing can be used to print on the plane, on the substrate with special shape, or even on the concave convex surface. In addition, the screen printing has a wide printing format, which can be used for large-area printing, and the printing format can reach 3M × Over 4m, it can also be printed on ultra-small and ultra-high precision articles. Because the screen printing plate is soft and elastic, and the printing pressure is low, if you need to print on a substrate as soft as textiles, and various glass and ceramic vessels that are easy to be damaged by pressure, you can choose screen printing.

Wide adjustable range of ink layer

The application range of screen printing is actually quite wide, which is jokingly called by many people. In addition to air and water, it can be printed on various materials and substrates with different surface shapes. Its substrates include paper, plastic, wood products, metal products, glass, ceramics, signs, textiles, leather products, optical discs, magnetic cards, etc. In recent years, its application in the high-tech electronic industry may be the most remarkable.