To get to know the very basic yet major process on how silkscreen printing works, here is a breakdown on how things work with this low-cost and easy printing method!
The first step is actually having your design. It’s either you have to draw or make it manually or make the layout digitally using soft wares like Corel for the old-school types or Photoshop and Illustrator for the millennials.
Once you have the artwork done and on hand and is sure with the sizing and the diameter and what-not, the design is then transferred on the mesh that is used to make the screens. The first step in this is that the screens are coated with a photosensitive emulsion, which has lots of variant available on the market.
Once the screen dries, it is placed on a light box and it exposed with usually a 3000-watt bulb, though some prefers to expose it on other sources of bright lights, though this takes more time.
Then when the screens are thoroughly exposed, these now washed out using a hose, with the pressure on to remove any residue and debris, so the image is washed out and here, preferably is where the screen is checked for the accuracy of the design on it.
Now to begin the printing process, if the design calls for multiple colors, you have to apply it one by one, for a more precise outcome. Now each color in your design has to have its own screen, and each one of those must be blocked and tape separately with the color evened out with a squeegee.
After the design is printed on the fabric, you set it out for these to get dry, but some prefers to dry paint colors in between each color in the design, to give a more accurate and dry and professional looking type of printing.
Now there you have it! The very basic run-down on how silkscreen printing works. Now you can see how silkscreen printing is designed to print quality garments in bulk quantities, because you can reuse your frames in a large quantity of items. See it’s that cost efficient and produces quality prints. That’s definitely a win-win for you!