Printing on Flat Glass

This section should relate directly to the Catspit Screen Printing Forum or to general questions that do not seem to fit other categories. Feel free to post anything here that does not fit into any other category.

Moderators: Shamax, Leadfoot, ApeShirt, Catspit Productions

marinor
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2016 11:09 am

Printing on Flat Glass

Post by marinor »

I have been running into some trouble with trying to print a metallic gold organic ink onto flat glass using a wet-on-wet method. I had several screens made to the specifications listed by the ink manufacturer, but still run into some issues. I am trying to print a border around the glass, so I had the screen image made to the exact glass size. The main problems that I see include:

-Ink deposit not being fully opaque even after wet/wet printing
-pinholes in the printed ink
-lines in the printed ink that are uniform to the screen mesh

I am using a 305.31 mesh but am changing to a 305.34, which is necessary for proper dispersion of the gold particles that are in the ink.

Does anyone have any experience with printing on flat glass in general and has run into similar issues who might be able to offer me some advice?
User avatar
Catspit Productions
Site Admin
Posts: 1995
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:47 am
Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Re: Printing on Flat Glass

Post by Catspit Productions »

Personally I can't help out with this one. This is considered graphic industrial screen printing which is not my forte. I focus on fabrics or textiles and other common flat materials but never really metal or glass. Some vinyls or plastics at times and posters but nothing like what you're doing.

Iv'e done some shot glasses on a cylinder press years ago with glass enamel ink but that's about it. Probably not as technical as your job.

It does sound like you're not getting the ink flow you need. The ink is not flowing through and around the mesh correctly for some reason. So if the manufacturer of the ink is telling you what mesh to use and such then at this point you would have to either use "thin mesh" if possible, or drop down the mesh count also in a thin mesh. I would imagine the thread diameter of the fabric would need to be thinner while the mesh openings need to be bigger. Then you might get the ink to flow properly and not have the above mentioned issues.

That's just based on my general screen printing knowledge though..... ;) So yeah. LOL....
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
Post Reply