Screen Printing on Products

Screen printing is a method of decoration whereby ink is forced through a prepared stencil of fine material to create an image or pattern. This method of promotion has become extremely effective due to its ability to achieve a high level of vibrancy, especially when printed on dark items or specialty products. Screen printing also allows for unique products and is ideal for branding flat or cylindrical objects.

What is Promotional Screen Printing?

Promotional screen printing involves applying your specific brand or logo onto a promotional product of your choice. It is easiest to view screen printing as stencilling an image onto an item. Screen printing is commonly used and excellent for bulk products, primarily used for items such as t-shirts, water bottles, notebooks and coffee cups. Our screen printing team has years of experience, so we are confident that we will appropriately prepare products to effectively promote your brand or logo.

How is Screen Printing Achieved?

Screen printing begins by us obtaining your chosen design or logo. Next, the production team will take the artwork and burn it onto emulsion coated screens. During this process, a screen technician will image the artwork onto a stencil and apply the stencil onto a fine mesh. The printer will then apply ink onto the back of the mesh and push it through the mesh and onto your product. This is left to dry to ensure that the first layer of ink is properly embedded on the surface of the product. This print and press system is repeated to include any further colours. You should note that only one colour may be used per stencil so this may affect the cost.

Advantages

Screen printing is advantageous due to its being:

• Efficient: screen printing is a relatively fast method of printing as compared to something like embossing;
• Durable: screen printing uses thick ink causing it to be more resistant to fading. This is observable on screen printed t-shirts being able to withstand re-washing with minimal fading;
• Vibrant: as the applied ink is thick, it results in brighter colours even on darker items;
• Cost-effective: compared to other methods of printing, screen printing is fairly cheap and is substantially more cost-effective when printed on bulk orders;
• Vast: screen printing can generally cover a larger area than other methods of printing, making it ideal for printing on t-shirts;
• Versatile: screen printing can be used on fabric, plastic or metal making it an adaptive technique used for a multitude of branding requirements.

Disadvantages

Although, screen printing remains limited in certain areas:

• Halftones: it is not recommended to use screen printing for halftones or very fine lines. Also, light colours on dark surfaces may require an additional undercoated white layer which may be burdensome as regards to cost;
• Colours: the screens used for screen printing can only contain one colour per stencil. Moreover, we can only print in spot colours (full-colour prints are not available), and gradient colours are not possible with this technique;
• Unsustainable: screen printing wastes a lot of water in removing excess ink.