This is a main process of screen printing. If you are interested in the digital printing, there also an introduction of digital flatbed printer you can read. Both the two methods are widely used nowadays, digital printing and screen printing. While this is a very basic explanation of the complicated process in screen printing, we hope it will at least help develop a basic understanding of the screen printing process.
Here’s an excerpt of the page:
1. The whole screen printing process starts with a screen. The screen is what your image will essentially be burned into, and acts as a stencil for ink to travel through.
2. To create this “stencil”, a screen is first degreased to make sure no tiny particles are stuck to it that can interfere with the paint, and is then coated with emulsion*.
3. Once the screen has been coated, it is left in a dark room to dry completely.
4. After the screen has dried, a film** with the artwork being printed is placed on top and is exposed under intense light.
5. Once the screen has been properly exposed, it is brought to a wash out booth where it is sprayed with water, leaving a “stencil” in the form of the art work on the screen.
6. Once the image is burned into the screen, it is put on the screen printing press and is ready to print however many shirts or whatever else is being printed.
* Emulsion – Emulsion is a chemical which is very senitive to high sources of UV light. Once this chemical completely dries on the screen, and is exposed to a powerful light, it hardens and clogs the holes of the screen to where water and inks can not penetrate it.
* Film – A film for screen printing is generally a transparency similar to the ones used on over-head projectors. The art work that is printed on these films is completely black to where light doesn’t travel well through it. This film is placed on top of a screen which has been coated with emulsion under an intense source of UV light, causing all the areas on the screen which were not blocked by the art work to be resistant to water.