Strengths Weakness Opportunities And Threats in Screen Printing

“With advancement taking place at all levels, screen printing has evolved as indispensable and a ‘versatile’ printing process”

I would like to pen down some of my recent thoughts about screen printing in the form of a quick SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of Indian screen printing industry scenario.

STRENGTHS:

Automation and UV technology – One of our valued customers who had 15 manual tables has now as many as 7 semi automatic screen printing machines. There are many screen printers whose business has doubled or tripled over the years ever since they switched over to automation along with UV. So, semi automatic and fully automatic screen printing machines are now making inroads into Indian screen printing industry in a big way.

In the last decade, from a predominantly manual printing process there has been a big shift from manual operations to semi-automatic and now fully automatic printing machines. Going by my own company’s sales performance, there has been steep increase in the number of screen printing machines (and UV curing machines) sold in the last couple of years than it was five to ten years ago. Also, a noteworthy transformation is that there has been quantum leap in the number of visitors to our pavilions at various printing industry exhibitions than it was 5-10 years ago.

That’s because screen printing not only involves low investment which is a big advantage for those wanting to join the screen printing business, but also there has been widespread applications of this versatile process and greater awareness about the immense benefits of and need for automation.

“Quality” improvement: Quality in screen printing seems to have come a long way. Today, with automatic precision machines, it is possible to get a result that years ago would have been a dream. Let the world believe that the screen printing process today is faster, better and cleaner.

New trend – combination of processes: There has been a growing trend of offset printers/packaging companies setting up inhouse screen printing unit instead of outsourcing. There are many digital printers who have set up screen printing units to meet the market demand for ‘total print solution’. Screen Printing is the perfect complement to offset and it works in tandem to help generate more business.

WEAKNESSES

Education – lack of knowledge!

I would say knowledge is the key to success to any business. What’s the use if screen printers have fully automatic screen printing line without having a proper knowledge?

In screen printing industry there is not only lack of ‘knowledge’ but also lack of ‘knowers of knowledge’. Inspire of this drawback, over the years, bravo, our screen printers have made drastic improvements due to their sheer hard work and inclination to learn from self help, by reading technical articles, attending exhibitions, seminars etc.

I think the technical education think tanks in India should really make an immediate analysis of the printing education offered in various institutes which is MINUS “advanced screen printing”, they touch upon only some basics and outdated elements of screen printing… very sad especially when the Indian screen printing is adopting automation in a big way and the need for trained screen printing professionals is shooting up. In the recent past, there has been a growing trend of offset printers embracing screen printing, whereas the printing institutes emphasizes more on offset and other printing technology.

On my part, I am determined to take screen printing education to a greater height through my own institute DMI. I am receiving tremendous response from the industry. What was started as workshops with 8-10 participants today our workshops are always houseful with long queue of waitlisted knowledge seekers.

I had produced and screened a video film ‘Screen on Screen’ in 15 cities few years ago. Following this success, we followed it up with yet another round of all India campaigns (ten) whereby we took our entire Nano Premier League package to show the screen printing process live to printers.

I fully agree with Mr Narendra P of Pragati Press, Hyderabad who recently said that the old mindset ‘screen printing business can easily be started with an investment as low as Rs. 500-1000 to print visiting cards, letterheads, etc, has to change now. That’s because technological development in screen printing has moved much ahead of this thinking. I strongly also agree with his view point that in screen printing every step is a ‘science’. So without learning this ‘science’ nothing can be printed qualitatively. By learning new techniques we can assimilate it in our daily practice.

OPPORUTNITIES:

Applications, unlimited: Screen-printing is a fantastic technology that is used by many industries with so many old, new and not yet discovered applications – both flat (plastics, cloth, metal, thin to thick papers, sunpack/sunboard, rubber, leather, wood, glass, footwears, PCBs, ceramics, etc) and non-flat substrates, by using appropriate machinery and inks. Further, this process is also widely used in packaging, labels, Smart-cards – the list of screen printing application is endless.

Growing trend – Value addition through various UV Special effect inks/varnishes: What was started as Spot UV – matt and gloss – today with the availability of various UV special effects, screen printers have now great chance to excite consumers. The range and variety of effect is extensive and it provides the marketer, print buyer and designer with a number of exciting possibilities.

Use of non-paper Substrates: Continuous advancements and developments in polymer technology, expertise and cost-effective manufacturing, plastic substrates are replacing traditional materials in many fields (environmental conditions apply!). These include : PVC, Polypropylene, HIPS, Lenticular Films, Polycarbonate etc. Polypropylene Sheets are extensively used for blister packaging, cardboard boxes etc. Polypropylene finds application in Disposable Containers, Embossing, Gift Box Making out of clear sheets, Freight Packaging, etc. PVC Sheets and Polypropylene Sheets are the best suited for screen printing. Polypropylene is also preferred by screen printers because of its low density and very economical cost. Similarly, PVC is also widely used by screen printers.

Great shift – Indian screen printers: I still recall what Michel Caza, an international screen printing expert said at the FESPA Munich 2010 Workshop titled “The Future of Screen Printing Goes Through Innovation — A comparison between Western and Asian Countries.” He was of the view that “Graphics and signage are only 20% of screen applications where as 35% lies in textile printing and about 45% in industrial applications.” This clearly sums up the potentials and future of screen printing process.

Screen printers should now take the call: During the presentation at FESPA Munich show, which was focused on the “how European countries are moving towards screen and how in Indian screen printing is moving with the latest trend,” Michel had also mentioned that because of industrial production getting shifted to Asian countries, screen printing is also getting more and more attention in this (Asian) region and that is the advantage for screen printers who are into industrial screen printing such as PCB, membrane switches, etc.

Moreover, even Mike Young’s presentation on “Emerging Technologies” proves that screen printing has a promising future. He sees a great future provided the screen printers in India remove all bottlenecks the major being “clean-room environment in the screen making and printing setup.” That’s because he saw hard working and sincere efforts by Indian screen printers to achieve quality through high level of automation. Mike was also quite optimistic about Indian screen printers. He says that Indian screen printers can face the challenges ahead with determination, enthusiasm, passion and courage.

Participation in Awards competitions – great opportunity to printers:

I have been witnessing a growing number of entries and award winners in two major international competitions – SGIA/ FESPA sponsored besides national competitions such as Screen Print India Award and SPAI-FESPA India and PrintWeek India competitions. That’s not only good but a healthy sign, because ultimately it increases appetite for quality improvement on various counts – Complexity, Image definition, precision and sharpness; Colour appearance, Application of use, Creativity, etc.

Still majority of the printers still hesitate to participate in these competitions due to many reasons.

THREATS:

a) Manual screen printing. If our screen printers are catering to industrial printing they should immediately dump manual screen printing tables as there are strict quality and delivery requirements in industrial segment. I have numerous screen printers who have switched over to automation due to all the side effects of manual screen printing – it is tedious, laborious, time consuming, wastage-ridden. I was told by many international experts that India lags behind several decades in screen printing but it is not too late.

b) Use of poor quality raw materials.

c) Use of Out-dated methods: Wooden frames, nylon white fabric instead of polyester yellow fabric, lack of standardisation in screen making although it is well known fact that screen is the heart of printing.

d) Using solvent although UV available for many applications.

Perhaps due to these reasons there is a growing trend in India that more and more OEMs are now setting up their own screen printing units. For example: Tiles and Ceramic industry, electronic industry, leather industry, garment industry, packaging and offset industry and many more. In these areas they used to earlier outsource their requirement.

Conclusion:

Screen printing process evolved over the years. Today, it offers ample innovation & creativity, thus playing a major role in printing industry because of the availability of advanced screen printing machines, UV technology coupled with availability of innovative special effects inks.

Screen printing is now quicker, cheaper, produces better quality images and offers a number of special applications. But advanced screen printing with high level of automation is not everybody’s cup of tea. Having advanced machines in place is not sufficient to run a profitable screen printing business. There is no profit from the press of a button like an ATM card. There is no short cut. Because not only does the set-up process take considerably longer than other techniques, but being able to truly master printing high quality images using the screen printing process also takes much longer, because there are a number of variables involved.

Today, there exist different systems designed to help the screen printers to achieve better result. But it revolves around the simple concept or standardisation of the entire screen printing process.

The comment made by Prof. Dr. Rajendra Kumar Anayath, Print Media Academy, Chennai – a Heidelberg Initiative during his visit to our stall at Print Pack 2011 New Delhi, is significant: “Bhargav, screen printing today is not what it was 6-7 years ago. With the kind of experiments that you are making at your DMI, it appears to me that it has emerged as a printing process to be reckoned with.”

Bye friends and have a great week…

Bhargav

Benefits using UV technology in Screen Printing

Indian screen printing industry is now waking up to the reality of UV-age. More and more screen printers are now adopting UV and dumping the foul smelling solvent which many feel a curse to the screen printing. That’s because it is not only it requires lot of space for drying but also environmentally hazard and wastage is rampant. In some areas such as decals and industrial printing UV has not made successful inroads and still they have to use only solvent inks. However, screen printers, wherever applicable, should consider UV because of its immense benefits. Screen printers should also note that other processes such as offset and digital are also roaring with UV. And I feel UV will soon become the norm for all printing.

Based on my continued experiments and R&D at DMI institute and feedback from customers, I can vouch for UV technology. The future of UV is bright that’s because it offers screen printers with great production advantages over solvent.

Screen printing, though a most versatile printing process, requires different types of drying system, viz, UV curing, IR drying, Hot air drying and most commonly screen printers use whole floor of their printing unit to dry the printed stuffs on racks. Now-a-days, most advanced wicket dryers are available as an online racking-cum-drying system.

With UV technology (UV inks and UV curing system), screen printers can now expect to achieve great deal of efficiency in their work and higher productivity and why not profitability!

The biggest nightmare for screen printers is ink choking in screen during small intervals and even during printing which restricts screen printers to deliver finer details. But now with UV Inks the problem of ink choking up in screens is never a issue.

Interestingly, one of our customers, dealing in industrial printing revealed that he has recovered his investment on table top UV system within one month. In another case, amazingly one of my dealers has stopped his 3-4 decade old business of dealing in solvent inks and screen printing consumables and focussed on promoting and marketing UV inks in a big way along with our Nano-Print and Nano-UV curing machine. That’s because even as a supplier he felt UV is the future.

With UV, benefits unbound:

- Sharp and finer print details

- Environment-friendly than hazardous solvent

- Clean work environment

- Economic print solution

- No ink drying on screen, no choke up hence saves lot of time

- Faster job turn around

- Waste reduction

Faster job turn around: Curing of UV ink happens almost instantly as compared to solvent inks which requires lot of time to dry.

Space saving: Since drying (curing) takes place instantly lot of space otherwise required for putting up drying racks can be saved and use it for other productive use. And UV curing system as such requires less space to position it along with printing machine.

Fine print quality: Vibrant print quality in process color screen printing.

UV – an economical and profitable printing solution: I always highlight in my workshops that screen printer should never compare the face value of UV ink with solvent ink which is cheaper than UV price wise. But look at the output per kg? In solvent, printers end up wasting lot of ink, substrate because very nature of solvent ink, whereas with UV every drop of ink is usable or can be put it back on the tin after printing is over. It is my research that UV ink gives times mileage than solvent ink. When we take into consideration the greater benefits and mileage of UV ink, it is definitely cheaper than solvent overall.

Word of caution: UV, UV, UV do not simply jump on it. Take cautious step instead of burning your hands later. First study the market. Analyze the return on investment. Study the supply sources, talk to them and understand UV better. You should thoroughly understand the whole UV technology, how it works, its technicalities, UV lamp, UV inks, UV curing system, and more importantly its application in relation to different substrates and safety aspects. And our DMI workshop orients screen printers on some of these aspects. But it is better to have regular interaction with printing machine/UV curing machine, UV inks manufacturer/suppliers, substrate suppliers, etc to keep yourself updated on regular basis. And knowledge seeking will definitely ensure you are on right track and deriving maximum benefits from UV.

Food for thoughts!

- Where do I get training?
- How much my machine supplier (both printing machine and UV curing system manufacturer or dealer) know about UV?
- How much UV ink supplier knows about UV?
- How much substrate supplier knows about UV?
- Can all these people are capable of guiding me or giving me training properly
- Yes ink wise you will find UV is priced on higher side. But how do I workout my costing to ensure that I do not charge more than what I used to charge earlier for a job using solvent inks.

If at all the cost works out more how do I convince my customers.

Other than normal UV inks, is there any potential for various UV special effects and how much I know about print finishing and value addition, what is the market for this special segment.

Do I need to employ skilled manpower or the existing manpower could be trained in UV?

Remember half knowledge is dangerous and if you practice based on half knowledge given by half-knowledgeable suppliers you will burn your hands in UV business.

And do not just see the current market but plan yourself and prepare a project report with a long term vision for an economically viable business proposition.

Technically speaking: Since application of UV in screen printing is growing day by day, I strongly recommend that screen printers should make every effort to acquire as much as knowledge in UV inks, printing, UV curing and all related areas.

In UV inks, the liquid coating (printing) gets cured to a solid state after being exposed to UV light. This chemical change is known as ultraviolet (UV) polymerization.

Usually, UV ink consists of:
- Oligomers
- Monomers
- Photoinitators

Besides there are other components such as pigments, stabilizers, flow controls, flatting agents.

I shall touch upon this aspect in my future blogs.

UV lamps: UV curing takes place based on UV radiation activating and UV sensitive chemicals. UV ink contains liquid prepolymers, photo initiators and pigments. As the ink is exposed to UV radiation it gets polymerized instantly into hardness.

UV radiation is facilitated through a UV lamp which releases radiation of about 240-400 nm. UV lamp (bulb and reflector) is fitted in separate modules to facilitate easy handling and replacement whenever needed.

UV lamps in a curing unit must be replaced after a certain number of hours use. Some lamps do last up to 3,000 hours, but replacement and running costs are a consideration.

Mesh and machine: Is there any difficulty hitch in using UV ink on all types of screen printing machines?

There is no problem, but printing with UV ink requires finer and even ink deposition. Therefore it is advisable to use finer mesh say 165 or 180 mesh and you have to buy a UV curing machine as per print area/curing area required.

Substrate: With the availability of UV inks and UV curing machine, screen printing even on most difficult substrates, viz, PVC, metal, polyethylene, foil, polystyrene, PP, ABS, PVC, besides paper is now possible.

Surface tension: or energy level, can best be explained by the understanding that a material with high surface tension levels has a greater degree of cohesive force and intermolecular attraction, and is less adhesive to another material.

For example, water has a surface energy level of around 80-90 dynes/cm2. As water molecules have a great internal attraction to each other, they readily form a bead or droplet.

Non-polar solvents, on the other hand, typically have energy levels between 10-20 dynes and have much greater wetting ability and less tendency to “bead”.

UV ink monomers and oligomers lie between these two extremes at around 30-36 dynes (milliNewtons/M2).

It is an established fact that plastic substrates require a surface tension level of at least 38 to achieve good adhesion. Too low a level will reduce the attraction between the substrate and ink/coating, and will cause reticulation and poor adhesion.

Suppliers of corona discharge treating equipment go so far as to say that a ten (10) dyne difference between substrate and applied coating or ink is required to achieve good results.

Therefore, with UV inks having energy levels of 30-36 dynes, theoretically film treatment levels of 40-46 dynes would be required.

UV screen printing: Devices required. There are many devices to monitor UV output which are passed under the UV source to measure temperature and UV output.

A light sensitive tape is used to gauge the level of absorbed UV when passed under a UV source. This tape changes color as per the intensity of lamp and speed of the conveyor, which is then checked as per calibration chart.

Best of luck…

Bhargav