As the variety of screen prints increases, the types of screen materials and screen plates are also increasing. In general, wire mesh materials were originally borrowed from other industries, and some other types of materials like stainless steel printing mesh were developed with the need for screen printing.
But while there are a variety of non-metallic wire mesh materials used in the screen printing industry, such as silk, nylon and polyester, they still do not meet all screen printing needs. For example, wire mesh materials used for dye printing or porcelain ink printing must withstand long-term etching of inks and solvents, and screen plates need to be recycled and reused. In order to meet the needs of these screen printing, there is an urgent need for a screen with a long life and good stability, and a screen called "wire mesh" in the industry is born.
Stainless steel printing mesh has a very fine diameter because it has a very even diameter and can be printed to the finest pattern. The mesh of the wire mesh is also very consistent, and it is larger than the mesh of other wire mesh materials, and the wire mesh is not like a non-metallic wire mesh that is easy to absorb ink and its wire does not absorb ink or solvent. Therefore, a flat ink film layer can be obtained. It has many advantages: frequent replacement of the stencil does not cause damage to the wire mesh; ink is also easy to pass through the wire mesh; it is especially suitable for printing with porcelain ink, frit ink, flake copper powder ink and dye ink. Occasionally; can be used for relatively fine work; wire mesh can get thicker ink film layer; better rigidity, accurate overprinting in printing; can be used for mechanical automation, semi-automatic or manual printing. In the past, due to the difficulty of stretching and expensive fabrics, wire mesh was generally only used to make small screens, but it is increasingly used in medium and large screen plates. Although it is more expensive and less flexible, its consistency and infinite use of features reduce overall cost. And the correct stretching and printing technology can make up for the shortcomings of poor elasticity.
There are two types of stainless steel printing mesh, namely plain weave and twill weave. Among them, plain weave is more commonly used, and twill weave is mostly used in very fine work. Flat weave is a single line of warp and weft interlaced, while twill weave is a double line of warp and weft. The mesh meshes woven by both weaving methods are square in shape. The screen obtained by the twill weave method is thicker.
Like other screens, wire mesh is classified by mesh count (number of wire mesh). Only square mesh is used in screen printing instead of rectangular mesh. The square mesh has the same number of meshes and the same large mesh size in the length direction and the width direction. The number of meshes per inch or centimeter is calculated from the number of meshes starting from any one of the mesh lines to a distance of 1 inch. For example, the No. 80 mesh should have 80X80 meshes per square inch, that is, there are 6,400 meshes. Usually the wire mesh type has 80 mesh/inch (31 mesh/cm) to 635 mesh/inch (250 mesh/cm). ). However, rougher wire mesh is also available on the market. The lower the number of wires of the screen, the larger the mesh; conversely, the higher the number of wires, the smaller the mesh. In the wire mesh, the diameter of the wire is in inches or millimeters.
The choice of stainless steel printing mesh depends on the condition of the reproduction, the type of ink and the condition of the printed surface. You can buy any size mesh cloth from 1 square foot (0.09 square meters) from the screen printer, which can range from 36 inches (91 cm) to about 79 inches (200.7 cm) in length.
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