Screen printing

Abstract

The screen printing process is markedly different from most imaging processes generally associated with the graphic arts. First, the printing plate is actually porous, formed by a woven mesh of synthetic fabric threads or metal wire (or in at least one case, by a nonwoven, electroformed metal matrix), which is then combined with a selective masking material, commonly called a stencil. Because the coating material flows under pressure into and through this mesh or matrix before being deposited onto a substrate, the resulting coating has a thickness far greater than that of a material printed onto the substrate by offset lithography, gravure, flexography, xerography, or ink-jet printing.