Silkscreening - what is it? Silkscreen with your own hands. Equipment, paints, technique and method of silk screen printing

Silkscreening - what is it? This is a specific type of printing. Its main feature is an interesting way of applying paint to the material. It is squeezed out through the stencils through the small cells of a special mesh.

Silkscreening - what is it? This is a widely in demand and unique technology that allows drawing drawings on any souvenir products (pillows, pens, T-shirts, etc.).

Benefits

The silk screening method allows you not just to create unique objects. Demanded in modern conditions, the technology significantly expands the range of services provided. Patterns when applying silk-screening are much juicier and brighter, colors - clearer. The main advantage of the unique method is the ability to produce products in small runs, applying images to any surface. The work is quite simple and has a low cost.

History of appearance

Silkscreening - what is it? The term "serigrafia" includes two roots. In Greek, they mean "silk" and "image" (scripture). The very origin of the word "silk-screen printing" refers to the work that is associated with the decoration of silk fabric or its use. According to one data, it is believed that this technology first appeared in China. A version is based on the fact that it is in this country for another thousand two hundred years BC. Began to produce silk. However, concrete confirmation of this has not yet been found.

Some historical facts indicate that the foundations of silk screen printing were discovered by the Phoenicians. This people extracted purple from the secretion of the gland of one of the mollusc species. A substance with a red color, and served to decorate the materials. The technology was not based on a manual method. It was accelerated repeating. The ancient method is radically different from the modern one. It can be described as applying simple patterns with the help of special dies (matrices).

Improvement of technology

Significant improvements in the silk screening method occurred in the following centuries. The fact is that printing with a stamp had a number of shortcomings. The main one was a small layer of pigment with absorbent and thick tissues. Approximately in the period from 1185 to 1333 in the city of Kamakura, which was at that time the capital of Japan, craftsmen decorated decorations for horses and armor of samurai. Initially, a simple stencil method was used to apply the patterns. Then a brilliant innovation was launched - the applied image was pasted onto a special mesh made in the form of a frame with human hair fixed on it. This method allowed to completely transfer the pattern to the fabric. Human hair, pressed by a swab soaked in pigment, on the material was absolutely invisible.

World popularity

By the second half of the XVIII century. The unique technology of displaying on a dye fabric has become popular in many countries. The application of silkscreen printing has become widespread in Europe. In France and England, a unique wallpaper was produced. American craftsmen decorated metal products, walls, furniture and fabrics.

Over time, the material for making the "printing frame" was not human hair, but silk threads. A great step in the development of silk screen printing was a patent registered in 1907 by a certain Simon. He invented a new method of screen printing. According to the new invention, drawing of the pattern was carried out through silk fabrics. This ensured greater tension stability, dimensional stability, and also allowed the use of rubber rollers.

The modern technology of screen printing acquired in the period from the thirties to the fifties of the last century. Since that time, silkscreen printing has been used to apply a pattern to any kind of fabric. With the help of a unique method, posters and postcards, labels, and even license plates for cars began to be created.

Currently, silkscreen is widely used. The possibilities of this method of printing are multifaceted. This allows the use of silkscreen printing in the printing house, as well as in electronic and textile, glass and ceramic, automotive and many other industries.

New opportunities

Silkscreening - what is it? It is a unique way to receive multi-color and high-quality photos and images on metal, porcelain and fabric products. When using the traditional method, expensive, cumbersome equipment and a lot of experience are needed.

More recently, a new technology was imported from the USA to the CIS countries , which immediately became very popular. With this method is available silk screen printing, made by myself in the home.

What is needed?

Equipment for screen printing includes a computer and printer, a scanner and a digital camera, as well as special accessories. In the event that you can draw well, computer technology is not needed.

Drawing a picture

The whole process consists of two stages. On the first of them, you should prepare a negative image. The next step is to transfer the drawing to the product.

For the first stage of the technological process, you need to print the desired image on the printer or draw it on a sheet of paper. Then a stencil film is pasted onto the sketch. Prepared in this way, the workpiece is placed for several minutes in a special frame on the sunlight or under a UV lamp.

At the next stage of the process, the film is placed in water, rinsed and removed from its surface with a soft brush excess coating. The resulting wet negative is subject to drying on a cloth or napkin under sunlight or an ultraviolet lamp.

At the next stage, the image is transferred to the selected item. In this case, the negative is tightly applied to the product, and a special spatula made of plastic material is applied to the paint. To work, you'll need to purchase a kit that includes an exposure frame, five A4 regular sheets, the same amount of paper for applying a higher resolution image, and a plastic spatula. If you want to use silkscreen for profit, you will need to organize a larger production.

In this case, you will need to purchase special equipment. In addition to a computer and a black and white printer, a silkscreen machine is to be purchased (for saving, it can be made on its own) exposing the camera, as well as a cutter. You will need some components (squeegee-cuvettes and frames, paints, etc.).

Materials for printing

Paints for silk-screen printing are currently produced centrally at Russian enterprises. They are classified by the type of film-forming and sealed material. For the nomenclature of such paints, digital and alphabetic designations are used. The marking of paints of foreign manufacturers differs from the domestic one. However, it is also expressed with the help of numbers and letters. When applying ink for silkscreen printing, one should follow the recommendations given by the manufacturer.

What are the conditions for quality printing of unique printing? Paints should have good flowability, but do not be too liquid. This will allow the material to be easily applied to the product by passing through the tissue cells. In this case, the paint should act in such a way that the process of bonding the substrate and the screen form does not take place.

In serigraphy there is one more important concept. It is called "coating ability". What does this mean? For example, when applying a white paint on a black product, the original (black) color should not be visible from under the pattern. This concept is directly related to the opacity, that is, the opacity of the paint.