Tuesday 18 October 2011

Common Printing Defects in Screen or Roller Printing



The following printing defects are frequently observed in screen or roller printing:

1. Scrimp

 During the printing process the fabric sometimes creases under one of the screen during the printing process. Thus the pattern is printed on the top of the screen. When the crease is removed, it leaves a large area of the fabric unprinted.

2. Misfit or Out of Registration

 A misfit is a defect caused when screens are not properly aligned. The misaligned screens can leave an area unprinted or cause the pattern overlap on one another.

3. Stick-in

A stick-in occurs when a small fiber or yarn get stuck in one of the screen openings. It can result is a small unprinted circle in the design of the size of the tip of a pen. A stick-in is very  difficult to see and often go unnoticed.

4. Wicking or Flushing

It occurs when the printed area bleeds out into the unprinted area. This results in a "haloing" or shadowing effect around the outline of the pattern design. Wicking is often caused by residual salts left in the fabric during  resign finishing or during fabric preparation.

5. Doctor Streak

It refers to a wavy white or colored streak in the fabric in the warp direction. It is called so because it is caused by damaged or improperly set doctor blade in the printing machine. A doctor blade is a metal knife that cleans or scrapes the excess dye from engraved printing rollers, leaving dye paste only in the valleys of engraved areas.

6. Mottled

It results from the color applied unevenly during printing

7. Printing Machine Stop

As a result of printing machine stop the dye sometimes is smudged along the width of the fabric.

An excellent description of defects in digital printing can be found here.

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