Methods to stencil a screen for Screen Printing are several but here we are going to tell you the most useful of all the methods which is commonly in practice in all over the World and now this method is thought to be the proper method of preparing a screen.
First of all we take a look on the previously used methods which were used to stencil the screen. In the past screen was stenciled by cutting a design of a non-porous material and affixing it on the bottom side of the screen or producing a negative print of the design on the screen directly using a filler material there was another technique that an image on the screen was painted with drawing fluid and then the image was dried, afterward whole screen was painted with a filler and it was left to dry up.
Drawing Fluid Paint
Then the screen was sprayed with the water and only that part of the screen used to become porous less which would have the drawing fluid paint on them. In this process one would have to contaminate their hands in the paint and it was very time consuming also.
The technique being taught here is method to stencil a screen is photo emulsion method. This method is in use over 70 years and applicable till now. In this process the design of the image taken from a photocopier, inkjet printer or laser printer etc. is taken on some translucent paper provided that design area should be opaque and black and white negative may also be used and unlike conventional design creation film positives may also be used.
Then a screen with photo emulsion paint coated on it and dried is taken. The porosity of the mesh of the screen being used depends on the image or the design which has to be created on the screen. The paper having design on it is posted on the screen.
Then the screen is exposed to bright light containing Ultra Violet 350-420 nanometers spectrum. This makes the painted area harder but the opaque design area escapes from this effect then the screen is wash with water using garden nozzle the design area is washed away giving a negative stencil of the design on the screen. Watch video tutorial for more details or point remaining unexplained.