Screen Printing

Your Guide To Glass Screen Printing

In the traditional method of screen-printing, we all know that ink is forced through holes in a mesh screen and onto paper or cloth. This process of screen printing has its advantages. There is no disputing its benefits. Today this screen printing process has greatly diversified to various applications including glass, The use of print-making techniques to print on glass was first pioneered by Harvey Littleton. He is hailed as the father of the studio glass movement. His understanding emerged from the awareness that glass would serve well as an excellent printing plate or surface to be printed on. It became clear to Henry Littleton that glass enamels can be used as a pigment and fired onto the glass. Yes, glass screen printing is highly in vogue and we aren't going to be left behind. So let's discuss about this.

By using glass enamels instead of traditional screen printing paints, you can make it possible to print on glass. Once a frame has been constructed (a simple 2' x 2' square will be work well) and the screen has been stretched tightly across the frame, be confident because now you are ready to create the stencil by opting for any three methods. You can use a brush, a stencil or a photo screen printing method. Whichever you decide would work well. So it is up to you.

Once the enamels have been screened onto the glass and allowed to dry, they should be fired to maturity. Additional layers and colors may be added if you wish to do so.

It is natural for you to want to screen print more than one color at a time, but the process is much more complicated. This is why most screen printers limit their works to a single color. Besides the variety of decorating options possible with glass screen printing, the demand for screen printing in large-format flat-glass applications is mounting so rapidly that manufacturers are adapting their press technology to meet this wave of demand. Flat-glass decorating is popular because of its flexibility to handle a wide range of glass-panel sizes and weights. It is not logical to keep away from discussing inks that are essential to glass screen printing so let's cover that now.

There is a wide assortment of screen printing inks designed specifically for glass screen printing. Glass inks are available in both opaque and translucent colors that provide a variety of surface finishes after drying or curing. The advantage of glass screen printing inks is that it infuses an additional flexibility to the process as it comprises a wide palette of chemistries, including UV inks, solvent-based epoxy and polyurethane inks, and specialty inks, such as electroluminescent and conductive formulations. Many glass printing inks are designed to emulate the effects of other decorating options such as frosting. But these effects don't pave way for extra production steps and costs so that is a relief too.

That's all there is to this interesting discussion on glass screen printing, thanks to Harvey Littleton of course.