Screen E-Book (.PDF) - MacDermid Autotype

This is the single most important fact in thewhole of screen printing.There could be many reasons for thinkingthat a hand print should be totally differentfrom a machine print. And if therewere a difference we’d know that screenprinting is a subtle science that dependson the precise speeds, pressures, anglesetc. of the printing process. But the factthat there is very little difference provesthat the process must be very, very simple.It is only our ignorance that makes it suchhard work.I’ve tried out this question many times.The answer is always the same. And theconclusion is always the same. Screenprinting is a simple science and thereforeif we find that it’s difficult it’s because we’redoing something wrong.Now, perhaps, you can understand whyI issued the guarantee at the start of theeBook. If screen printing were a subtlescience, there’s no way I could issue theguarantee. But because I know it’s simple,I know that my guarantee is a pretty safebet.Let’s now look at the details of how the mesh comes out of the ink:A filled mesh, ready to printHere we have the nice filled mesh, neatly scraped by the squeegee. Note thatwe still haven’t printed anything, yet the squeegee has already disappeared.So the squeegee has nothing to do with the actual printing.The mesh starting to come out of the inkNow the squeegee is far away so the mesh can rise and start to come out ofthe ink. The ink has no choice but to form those smooth curves around themesh (positive curvature) and between the mesh (negative curvature).15