Screen printing is one of the primary methods for printing on textile fabrics, alongside heat transfer printing.
This process is widely used across various sectors, including apparel, home textiles, and packaging printing. In the apparel industry, it is extensively used for printing on pre-cut garment panels, as well as for limited-edition, high-fashion women's clothing. For home textiles, it is suitable for printing on fabrics such as terry cloth. Additionally, it is frequently employed for printing trademarks, packaging, glass and ceramic products, and leather goods.
There are three main methods of screen printing. Manual screen printing is carried out on long tables for commercial production at a rate of 50–90 yards per hour; it is widely used for pre-cut garment panels, high-fashion women's wear, and small-batch products intended for market testing. Flat-screen printing (automatic screen printing) operates at approximately 500 yards per hour; it is suitable for fabrics like terry cloth and is also well-suited for small-batch, intricate printing. Rotary screen printing is a continuous process with the highest production speed-exceeding 3,500 yards per hour-making it the most widely used screen printing method today.
Regarding specific applications, rotary and flat-screen printing machines-both domestically and internationally-predominantly utilize acrylate resin adhesives for fabric bonding. This durable adhesive offers ease of use, excellent print quality, and low cost.
The primary drawback of screen printing is its high water consumption (3–5 cubic meters per 100 meters of fabric), which generates significant amounts of wastewater. In recent years, the industry has addressed environmental challenges by improving printing machinery (such as models that reduce water consumption by 30%) and developing eco-friendly dyes and chemicals (such as soy-based alkyd resin binders).
Screen printing technology is evolving toward greater printing precision, shorter screen-making times, lower screen-making costs, adaptability to diverse small-batch production, higher levels of automation (such as the use of automatic quality monitoring systems), and improved environmental sustainability. Despite competition from digital printing, screen printing will remain a mainstream technology for the foreseeable future due to its maturity, ability to produce special effects (such as 3D relief and finishes using metallic or pearlescent pastes), and high production efficiency.
Furthermore, screen printing technology is being applied in cutting-edge fields, such as the fabrication of structurally colored patterns based on photonic crystal structures on textile substrates.