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Screen, an illuminating process
Somewhere in Brussels is a mole with contacts in the sign and print industry who is insisting on warning labels, posters and displays being produced for every conceivable human activity. These explain whether you can do it, can't do it or the consequences of same. Be aware that many of these will have to be specific colour matches and lightfast for seven years. So where do we turn to but screen printing where the inks we can use are more stable that those used of other processes.
On the issue of lightfast inks, a client was visited by a salesman representing a well known digital printing machine supplier who stated categorically that the UV curing inks used in his digital printing machine will maintain their colour ‘for ever, far longer than any other ink'.
My client told the salesman he was talking rubbish. The point is if the salesman had sold the equipment to an unsuspecting novice the salesman would have been long gone before the problem of UV instability became obvious. The quality of digital printing inks is increasing and as nano technology and other such molecular miracles catch, so pigments and inks will develop. We often forget that the largest users of pigments are the cosmetics and coatings industries. So, when you about a new exotic pigment it is likely to have evolved from painting oil rigs or the most attractive form of indoor and outdoor advertising: lipstick and nail varnish.
For sign practitioners who wish to create fluorescent coloured, metallic effect and glitter, the thick film process of screen printing is essential unless they buy in expensive coloured substrate.
The hand bench screen printing machine is still one of the most effective tools a printer can have and they can be purchased second-hand for next to nothing. A brand new piece of kit will pay back in weeks. Any colour, any substrate, any working environment, a hand bench is suitable for printing from one to 1,000 images very simply and cheaply. They are not practical for four colour process in all but the expert hands but line colours and specific colour matches are right up their street.
I had a poignant letter from a printer with many years experience in screen printing who was made redundant for the first time in twenty years. He said as a hand bench screen printer he was ‘unaware of the digital age, believing in very lean times, screen printing would always be economic'. He was right. However, later on in the letter he said his unsuccessful job search ‘highlighted that screen printing has never publicised itself too well'. Sadly there is a great deal of truth in that statement.
At the other end of the scale the managing director of a large display producer considered he would not be able to fully service his customers' needs if he only had digital printing presses. He felt the future of large format printing will be digital but even the current range of higher speed digital equipment that print fifty to ninety sheets per hour were no match for a screen press that can be set up in 30-minutes and easily print four colours at 350 sheets per hour. This means that after 60 sheets the screen press is faster. With ink prices typically £1.00/m2 for digital and £0.30/m2 for screen, even with stencil costs included he said this can make screen printing more economic after 90 sheets.
When you add into the equation the Return on Investment calculations, as compared to the amount of substrate you can process, the screen printing process is the winner and is likely to be so for several years. I can hear roars of protest from digital equipment suppliers but that is the view of someone who has both processes and selects the one most suitable for the application. For companies who want to get into screen printing to share the advantages of having a wider production spectrum they will find equipment is competitively priced as new and even more so used.
Quazar International is an example of a company who has developed a niche market in easily transportable road sign designed for the police and telecommunications market. The need to constantly innovate is crucial as regulations evolve. Signs have to be easily stored in the boot of a police car or back of a van and operate under arduous conditions. What is also interesting is their approach to export markets where, with the use of their website, it is possible for customers across Europe to order country specific designs.
Quazar have developed a reputation for innovative and often bespoke products. From this a comprehensive range of road-signs and barrier systems have evolved: all designed with the same basic elements. In every case the aim of Quazar is to produce products that exceed the working requirements of their customers. The combination of specialised reflective substrates, innovative mechanical design and the ability to print highly resistant ink systems with the screen printing process make Quazar International leaders in this area of signage.
As with so many screen printing applications, you see them every day and don't realise what an important part they play in our lives. Of course the company is also in the business of supplying badges for high visibility clothing. These are an obvious extension of their hazard warning sign business.
At times when people read these articles they may think I am banging a lonely drum for screen printing, well they could be right because the perception broadcast in the market is that screen printing is finished. No, it isn't finished. It has changed its focus away from the near photographic quality of many graphics application that anybody who can afford a digital printing machine can achieve, to premium applications where the skill of the screen printer is needed.
The simple fact is that the spread of applications has reduced considerably but those left are highly profitable. You can ignore the unique selling point and stay with the crowd if you wish. The measure is when your screen printed chip and pin card is refused in the machine, then it is too late.
