Screen Printing History Lesson, San Francisco and San Diego Screen Printers

Most people are blind to the rich history of San Francisco and San Diego Screen Printers.The majority of the patterned fabrics we buy today have been industrially printed – a rather new process that’s fast, outlined and massively flexible.
But screen printing by hand, as is still done in San Francisco and San Diego, still has many benefits, enabling artists and crafts people to produce images that are graphic, eye-catching and individual.
Screen printing is the youngest of all the direct printing strategies. It originated in China then was changed by the Japanese in the form of katazome. The japanese used woven silk to make the mesh and lacquers to make stencils. The use of silk is where screen printing got its another name – Silk screening or silk screen printing.

The modern screen printing process originated from patents taken out by Samuel Simon in the early 1900s in England. This idea was then adopted in San Francisco, California, by John Pilsworth in 1914 who used screen printing to form multicolor prints in much a similar manner as screen printing is done today. In reality, that’s still today why California, particularly San Francisco and San Diego became instrumental in the screen printing industry. In fact one San Diego screen printer still offers local customized delivery very similar to the olden days.

During the first World War, screen printing took off as an industrial process for printing flags and banners. The utilization of photographic stencils at this time made the process more flexible and inspired wide-spread use. The term silk screen hasn’t been in use within the industry since the mid-1940s when the utilization of silk was discontinued due to its use in the war effort. Since that time, screen printing has used polyester material for the screen mesh.

This strategy of printing has become significant in the production of a wide range of manufactured items, including decorative panels, printed circuit boards, touch-sensitive switches, plastic containers, and released threads. Stencils for commercial screen printing are usually produced by photomechanical means. A fine synthetic fabric or metal mesh is stretched over a rectangular frame, and a photopolymer coating is applied to the entire surface. Exposure of the photopolymer through a film positive causes it to toughen in the areas not meant to print. The unexposed material is then washed away to make the open areas of the stencil. In the printing press, this screen is pressed against the surface to be published, and ink is forced thru the open areas of the stencil with a rubber squeegee.

The presses for screen printing range between easy manual devices for the small-scale printing of T-shirts and banners to large sheet-fed presses for multicolor, high-volume commercial applications. The process is distinguished by its capability to print finely detailed images on nearly any surface, including paper, plastics, metals, and three-dimensional surfaces. Compared to other printmaking techniques, it is more desirable due to its the low costs, even for enormous sizes. It’s likely to make glossy, transparent and solid colours. And it is feasible to print on many alternative materials. It’s also the sole major printing process that is constantly used to supply images that are not designed to be viewed. The circuit patterns in touch-sensitive switch panels, as an example, are screen-printed with special conductive inks.
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Screen Printing History Lesson,  San Francisco and San Diego Screen Printers

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