Here are some of our most commonly asked screen and digital printing questions.
What is screen printing?
Screen printing is a process in which images are printed using a mesh screen and ink. Screen printing uses a wide range of materials and substrates for inks to be printed on. In BTI’s instance, we only use one screen for each functional film or decorative design layer.
How do screen printing presses work?
Once production gets the design, the screens begin to be made.
A precision printer moves the screen in two or four corners. The screen goes straight up and down. This up and down motion has a smaller margin for error when compared to the clamshell. Precision printers are essential in creating consistency in ink deposition for functional products like printed electronics.
What are the steps to screen printing?
STEP 1: Prepress checklist
Step 2: Films are produced
Step 3: The screen is prepared
Step 4: The emulsion is exposed
Step 5: Stencil created
STEP 6: Ready to Print
Step 7: The ink is pressed through the screen onto the substrate screen Printer
Step 8: The product is dried
Step 9: Quality
Read more details about the screen printing basics and steps here.
What kind of equipment is used in a screen-printed process?
We have five different precision screen printers. Most of them are four post precision screen printers, with print beds up to 37 inches by 54 inches.
There is also a room in production just for housing and mixing inks. There is a variety of equipment to help our ink mixers whip up the best ink for your screen-printed product. Another room in the back of the production room is used to create the designs in the mesh screens.
Since many of the screen printed products involve solvents, the product has to be heated to evaporate the water out of the ink so that the solvent can better bind to the substrate. We have a couple of industrial-sized heaters for efficiently drying solvent passed projects.
What kind of products are produced in a precision screen printing process?
Our precision screen printers manufacture custom printed electronics, user interfaces, and fine line traces.
There are special-effect inks that can be used to enhance user interface products like graphic overlays.
Printed electronics are only made on-screen print presses. This is because they use a variety of conductive and dielectric inks. Precision screen printers offer excellent tolerances to create fine line traces that can be used in products like antennas and biometric sensors.
Screenprint and Digital processes can be used in combination, further expanding our product offerings and production flexibility.
Digital Printing
What are the advantages of digital printing?
No Initial Costs or Setup, Environmentally Friendly, Faster turn-around times, Smaller Volumes, and Precision are some of the main benefits of digital printing. Read more about digital printing here.
What kind of products are produced in a digital printing process?
Most labels, decals, and graphic overlays can be made in a digital printing process. Although our printers can accommodate large formatted projects, printed designs are usually restricted by the size of the substrate sheet.
What kind of inks are used for digital printing?
We have multiple printers that can have full-color imaging in CMYK colors and opaque white. Our colors are typically restricted to PMS coated colors, depending on which printer is used.
BTI understands the importance of precise color matching and color management. A computer-based formulation system, spectrophotometer, and transmission densitometer are used to precisely match and control color in our print processes.
What kind of equipment is used in the digital printing department?
Depending on the job, one of three printers will be used in a digitally printed production run. We use three digital printers, the swissQprint Impala 3, Roland digital press, and Fuji's Acuity.
swissQprint Impala 3
This is our newest digital printer. Its flatbed capabilities help to increase efficiency to create consistent, detailed, high-quality user interface products. The Impala 3 accommodates material up to 108” x 72”.
Roland Digital Press XC-540-
The Roland can print digitally, and the plotter cuts a variety of materials up to a 54” wide sheet or roll.
Fuji - Acuity Advance HS-
This flatbed printer is excellent for printing detailed labels and graphic overlays. The Acuity HS handles substrates up to 48” x 96”.