The screen printing is a printing technique that allows to choose and manage the thickness of the laid ink.
It is this feature, combined with the possibility of printing by choosing the ink among a wide range of screen printing inks that makes screen printing the most widely used printing technology in the industrial decoration sector today.
The possibility to control the ink deposit and the wide range of Grafco formulated screen printing inks allow the following:
Screen printed decorations and prints with excellent outdoor fastness
By using silver-based conductive screen printing inks it is possible to print on flexible materials like polyester and polycarbonate conductive traces and pads used in the production of membrane and capacitive keyboards.
By using photoluminescent screen printing inks it is possible to get prints that once exposed to sunlight and then brought to dark, give out visible light for a long time. A typical employment is the print of indicators and scales used in the aeronautical and motorcycle sector, or in the production of security signs used in the naval sector.
By using screens made with high photoemulsion thickness and special high thixotropy UV screen printing inks you can produce embossed prints (Braille) that can be read by visually impaired people.
Only in screen printing today it is possible to obtain a wide range of special effects determined by the availability of ranges of screen printing inks specifically formulated to offer glossy, matt, satin, embossed, glitter, iridescent, luminescent, thermochromic, photochromic, light reflective, soft touch and many more effects used in the industry.
At Grafco we produce:
The solvent based screen printing inks are meant for use for the decoration in industrial applications where highest performances are required in terms of fastness, adhesion and durability on various materials with the highest resistance that can be achieved in tests of exposure to external agents. For many years Grafco has been optimizing this product range to meet the requests of many industrial sectors.
The water based screen printing inks for textile printing have to ensure excellent opacity also on dark fabrics, excellent gloss and most importantly, high fastness to repeated domestic washing.
The plastisol inks for the T-shirts printing have been formulated to combine easy use, high opacity, soft hand on fabrics usually used for the t-shirts. The three above features make the screen printers use the plastisol inks when high speed production is necessary like in the promotional apparel.
The silicone based inks have a particular touch and very soft, gummy and braking hand. These inks for screen printing are used when high stretchiness and barrier effect to the migration of the dyes dispersed in the polyester fabrics, especially used in the sports field, are required.
Besides the direct printing (screen printing on T-shirts or on objects), the screen printing is also used for the production of screen printing transfers.
In this case the screen printing inks for transfer can be solvent based, water based or silicone based. Transfer printing involves production with screen printing machines using these screen printing inks for transfer on polyester paper or film with a special treatment that facilitates the transfer during the processing in the hot press. Once applied, these inks must be dried and cured on these substrates and later, when the market requires it, they are applied through a hot press on the chosen substrate.
The specific feature of the UV screen printing inks and the UV screen printing varnishes is the very high drying speed since they solidify in fractions of a second once exposed to UV light. This kind of UV inks for screen printing have been used for years in sectors that require high production, like the industrial packaging, paper industry and the production of premium wine labels.
