Distinguish Screen printing and Screen printing

Screen printing

Screen printing may be a hand operation or an automatic machine process. The cloth is first laid on a printing table, gummed in position or pinned to a back gray, and then the design is applied through a screen made of silk or nylon gauze stretched over a wooden or metal frame, on which the design for one colour has been reproduced. This is usually a photographic process, although hand painting with a suitably resistant blocking paint is an alternative. A screen is placed over the fabric on the table against registration stops, ensuring accurate pattern fitting. Print paste is poured on to the screen edge nearest the operator and is spread with a squeegee over the surface of the screen so that colour is pushed through the open parts. The screen is moved until one colour has been applied to the cloth. For application of other colours, the process is repeated with different screens.

With the growing importance of screen printing, the hand operation has been largely replaced by mechanical methods. In some machines, the screens are flat, as in hand printing; others employ rotary screens.

Heat transfer printing

The popularity of polyester fabrics led to the development of a completely new form of printing: heat transfer printing, which prints the pattern on paper with carefully selected dyes. The paper is then applied to the fabric by passing the two together through a type of hot calender, and the pattern is transferred from one to the other. This method opens up new possibilities, such as the production of halftone effects.

In all textile printing, the nature and, particularly, the viscosity of the print paste are important, and the thickeners employed must be compatible with all the other components. For conventional methods the thickeners are such reagents as starch, gum tragacanth, alginates, methyl cellulose ethers, and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. Many types of dye can be applied, including direct cotton, vat, mordant, and reactive dyes, as well as pigment colours. Most dyes are fixed by steaming or aging, by a batch or continuous method, and more rapid fixation is effected by flash aging—e.g., allowing a shorter steaming period by employing smaller machines. After steaming, the fabric must be thoroughly washed to remove loose dye and thickener, ensuring fastness to rubbing.

Most textile materials can be printed without special pretreatment, but wool cloths are generally chlorinated before printing. Tops (long, parallel wool fibres), printed in stripes, are used for mixed effects, and printed warps produce shadowy effects. Tufted carpets are printed by a process designed to ensure good penetration.