Screen printing ink selection and use

Because the screen printing process has a wide range of applications and low investment, substrates that are difficult to print for other printing methods use screen printing, and thus the screen technology has been rapidly developed in recent decades.

Bringing the screen printing process to such a fine feature is that in addition to diversified printing equipment, there is a versatile, multi-purpose screen printing ink. Therefore, it is more important to choose and use silk screen printing inks than to select other printing methods (gravure, relief, lithography, flexo).

First, the choice and use of silk screen printing ink

Silk printing inks, like other types of inks, are made by mixing and grinding pigments, resins, solvents, and additives.

1. Drying can be divided into:

Steam drying type - the method of making the ink film by solvent volatilization.

Oxidative Polymerization - A method of forming an ink by means of an oxidation reaction.

Two-fluid reaction type - The method of forming ink adhesion by two-component chemical reaction.

Ultraviolet curing type - a method of forming a film by adhesion of a chemical reaction caused by ultraviolet irradiation.

Different drying inks can bring different gloss, different resistance (mechanical resistance, chemical resistance, and weather resistance) to the ink film after printing. Different drying equipments produce different costs, so the user must choose carefully.

2. According to the type of ink binder material, it can be divided into many types, but different ink manufacturers choose different resins, which can be roughly divided into epoxy resin, polyurethane, polyester, vinyl, acrylic, rubber, etc. . Only with a clear definition of the substrate and different materials, inks of different resin types can be used to avoid the bad adhesion consequences caused by ink errors. For substrates with unclear materials, it is best to determine the selected ink after the printing test.

3. Different types of inks use the thinners provided by their manufacturers, mainly because various diluents have different solvency for different types of inks to avoid poor printing effects.