At Northeast Silk Screen, we provide design print ready silk screens for use in several industries. But what are print ready silk screens, and how do they fit into the silk screening process? To start, a print ready silk screen is a printing stencil made from a fine mesh screen that is used in the process of silk screen printing.
Let’s look at how print ready silk screens are made and how they’re used in the silk screening process.
Making the Screen
To create a print ready silk screen, a design or image is first created on a computer or by hand. The image is then transferred onto a transparent film or acetate sheet using a special ink or toner. This film is then placed onto the silk screen, which has been coated with a light-sensitive emulsion. The screen is then exposed to light, which causes the emulsion to harden in the areas that were not covered by the design on the film.
After exposure, the screen is washed with water, which washes away the emulsion in the areas that were not hardened by the light. This leaves behind a stencil on the screen that corresponds to the design on the film. The screen is then dried and ready for printing.
Using It for Printing
Once we’ve made the silk screen, our role in the process is over, but the image is not yet transferred to the surface. To print using a silk screen, the screen is placed onto the surface to be printed on, and ink is applied to the top of the screen. A squeegee is used to force the ink through the open areas of the stencil and onto the surface below. The ink is then cured or dried, depending on the type of ink used and the material being printed on.
Print Ready Silk Screens by Northeast Silk Screen
A print ready silk screen is a crucial element of the silk screen printing process. It is the stencil that determines the final image that will be printed onto the surface. A well-made silk screen can produce clean, crisp prints with sharp edges and consistent colors. At Northeast Silk Screen, we make high-quality silk screens for printing on nearly any surface.