Process Of Screen Printing
Screen printing is a printing process that makes use of a woven mesh to hold an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil outlines the open areas of the mesh that transfer ink in the form of a sharp-edged image on the surface that is to be printed and this surface is called substrate. On the screen stencil, a squeegee or roller moves and pumps the ink on the open areas that are to be printed with that particular color.
A stencil method of printmaking that imposes a design on the screen of silk surface, the ink is forced onto the printing surface through the mesh and the blank areas are covered with an impermeable substance is called silk-screen printing or serigraphs.
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 ’62 in the garish colors. In year ’60, 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.
Currently, graphic screen printing is used in creation of mass or large batch production graphics such as posters or display stands. The screen printing is more suitable for printing on non-porous surfaces like ceramics and metals, curved surfaces like bottles and cups and also for short print runs.
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.