This post makes up the second part of Making a Squeegee for Print Screen – The Blade post. Remember that silkscreen and print screen refer to the same printing technique. Silkscreen is the term applied to the time when the silkscreen mesh was actually silk, between the 18th century and the first half of the 20th century. Print screen is the term applied from the time when the mesh ceased to be made of silk and started to be synthetically manufactured with the discovery of nylon, at the end of the 19th century. But both terms are still used, regardless of its mesh origin, perhaps the silkscreen is more used in manual technique and the print screen in mechanized model like the industrial screen printing. But to differentiate the artistic from the non-artistic there is still the term serigraphy, created by the American National Serigraphy Society, in 1940. You can read more about it in the History of Screen Printing post.
In a purely occupational environment, even a plastic spatula, a ruler, or a piece of cardboard can serve as a squeegee. The need for a suitable and high-quality squeegee becomes apparent when professional goals begin to be established, when rigor, speed, and consistency become necessary. Since the squeegee is the most active tool in screen printing, it is convenient for it to be a lightweight, comfortable, practical, and well-constructed piece. The ideal material for the squeegee handle is aluminum, due to its lightness, impermeability, durability, and resistance. If the user is familiar with 3D printing, this is a small and easy-to-print piece in bioplastic, as an alternative to aluminum.
The squeegee size is determined by the size of the screen, which, in turn, should not exceed 60% of the total screen area, and be centered on the screen – in order to maintain not only symmetry but also regular tension throughout the screen, thus ensuring the integrity of any type of image on the substrate. In addition, there needs to be free space for ink replenishment and squeegee rest. The squeegee should extend beyond the screen limits by at least 2 centimeters on each side, but it is advisable to maintain a lateral distance of no less than 3 centimeters from the frame to avoid unnecessary stress on the filaments, which also contributes to a greater overall loss of tension. In this way, a user who wants to make prints of very irregular dimensions should build several frames and several squeegees, in sizes to match.
This article is just a small sample from an e-book sold on this website, but its first edition is only available in Portuguese.
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