Technological Advances in Rotary and Flatbed Printing (Part 1)

Textile printing is an extensive industry and having a history of about 2000 years. But intensive developments activity both from technological advancement and machinery developments in printing took place in last decade only to meet present days highly fashion oriented demands. Over the years various developments from the point of technology with respect to styles of printing,methods of printing and print paste were going on.

Today,5% of all fabrics produced as white and 70-75% are dyed. 5% is woven from dyed yarns and rest 20% is printed. In industrialized countries, 49% of all printed goods are used for apparel, 37% for home textiles, and 9% to make other articles like umbrellas, linings and camping materials, 4% as a carpet and 1 %for technical textiles.

Screen-printing is arguably the most versatile of all printing processes. It can be used to print on a wide variety of substrates including paper, paperboard, plastics,glass, metals, fabrics and many other materials including paper, plastic, glass,metal, nylon and cotton. Some common products from the screen-printing industry include posters, labels, decals, signage and all types of textiles and electronic circuit boards. The advantage of screen-printing over other print processes is that the press can print on substrates of any shape, thickness and size. A significant characteristic of screen-printing is that a greater thickness of the ink can be applied to the substrate than is possible with other printing techniques.