Screen Tech | Screen Printing

A screen is made of a piece of porous, finely woven fabric (originally silk, but typically made of polyester or nylon since the 1940s) stretched over an aluminum frame. Areas of the screen are blocked off with a non-permeable material-a stencil-which is a positive of the image to be printed; that is, the open spaces are where the ink will appear.

The screen is placed on top of a piece of dry paper or fabric. Ink is placed on top of the screen, and a squeegee (rubber blade) is used to push the ink evenly into the screen openings and onto the substrate. The ink passes through the open spaces in the screen onto the paper or fabric below; the screen is lifted away and then the squeegee is pushed back across the screen, with the screen lifted, "flooding" the ink into the screen. The screen can be re-used after cleaning. If more than one color is being printed on the same surface, the ink is allowed to dry and then the process is repeated with another screen and different color of ink.