FULLY AUTOMATIC FLAT-SCREEN PRINTING

FULLY AUTOMATIC FLAT-SCREEN PRINTING METHOD:

Figure 1. Fully automatic flat-screen printing machine (Buser)

Figure 2. Fully automatic flat-screen printing machine (simplified diagram); rollers 1 and 2 move as shown, to maintain the lower side of the blanket in constant motion, 3 is the pressure roller, 4 the temporary adhesive application unit and 5 the blanket washer (Buser)

Flat screen printing system is one of the most popular printing systems in all over the world. The flat screen printing is widely used in United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Korea, China, Japan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan etc. Manual flat screen printing machine and printing process is too much slower and production in flat screen printing is also lower. The best solution for reducing time of printing and increase the productivity in printing is to use the automation in flat screen printing.   

Due to increase the operating force and speed of flat-screen printing, it must be needed to develop a method of printing that could be delivered all the colors spontaneously. Perhaps flat screens for printing are not reasonable coloration units for a real continuous process of printing, and in all the successful printing machines for total automatic flat-screen printing the color is applied through the screens while the textile material is fixed.

The automatic flat screen printing contains many features and facilities. The main features of a typical automatic flat-screen machine are illustrated in figure1 and shown diagrammatically in Figure2. All those screens for the design (a single printing screen for each single dyed color) are placed perfectly along the top place of a long endless belt that named as blanket. A printing machine intended to print conventional furnishing styles and more place is kept for 15 more screens. Those automated printing screens are reserved for more printing color variation.  The width of the space in to the areas printed by any two adjacent screens must be a whole number of length ways design repeats. This need not necessarily be the same as the lengthways screen repeat as there may be several design repeats per screen repeat; for example, If there are four design repeats per screen repeat, the space between adjacent screens need only be one fourth of a screen repeat.

For automatic fully screen printing the textile material is gummed to the blanket at the entry end and moves along with the blanket in an intermittent style, one screen-repeat distance at a time. All the colors in the design are printed simultaneously while the fabric is stationary; then the screens are lifted and the fabric and blanket move on. When the fabric approaches the turning point of the blanket, it is pressed off and passes into a drying chamber. The soiled blanket is washed and dried during its return passage on the underside of the printing machine.

Current utilization of automatic flat-screen printing machine:
Scientist is trying to develop the automatic flat-screen printing machine. In the UK and USA fully automatic flat-screen printing is primarily used for the printing of good-quality furnishing textile material. The systems are perfectly suitable for the large repeats and large motifs often used on these fabrics. In addition, the printing speed is relatively low (300–600 m h–1) compared with rotary-screen or copper-roller printing, and this allows time for any printing faults to be mentioned and fixed before much expensive cloth is damaged.

The main part of the fully automatic flat screen printing machine:
1.    Adhesive systems of automatic flat screen printing machine
2.    Squeegee systems of automatic flat screen printing machine
3.    Intermittent movement of the printing screen and fabric