Screen Printing: Screen Production

Screens were traditionally made from silk but nowadays they are made from nylon coated with a photo-sensitive emulsion. Full colour images can be printed by producing film positives (below) of each colour separation. Individual screens are then made for each colour to be printed.

The film positives are placed face down on an ultra-violet (U.V.) light unit with the photo-sensitive emulsion coated screen on top.

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The screen is then exposed under U.V. light which causes a chemical reaction to occur in the coating, curing and thus hardening the exposed areas of the emulsion not masked by the film.

Pressurised water jets are used to wash away the unhardened areas of the screen creating holes that allow ink to pass through during the printing process creating an image on the CD-ROM.

The final stage before printing is to glue a sheet of self adhesive metal foil to the screen. This ensures ink will only passes through the area of the screen where the image is positioned.

The next stage is the printing process.