How do Screen Printing Factories Control the Color of Screen Printing Ink Mixing?

October 7, 2022

Before printing, screen printing processing needs to carry out the ratio of ink mix. Accurate color is the premise of qualified screen printing products. Therefore, if the screen printing ink mixes well, the later screen printing process is much smoother. So it is necessary to talk about the precautions and regulations of screen printing ink mixing.

Tips on color mixing of screen printing ink

Choose the appropriate diluent according to the color sample
Determine the proportion between the original ink and diluent according to the chromatogram and the original sample
According to the order from light color to dark color respectively add the selected original inks.
According to the proportion add ink from the largest to the smallest order.
After uniform deployment mix, use a scraper to take a small mixed sample and the original ink sample for comparison and check, or pat open the ink on the paper (that is, dip and mung bean volume of ink on the paper, and then use another piece of paper cover on the ink to contrast);
As little as possible with different colors of ink, otherwise, the deployment of the ink gloss is reduced, and the ink is gray dark;
All the materials for testing the sample should be the same as the printing substrates, and the color draft and sample must be observed under the same standard light source.

Rules and regulations for color mixing of screen printing ink

All the colorists should wipe clean the table surface and electronic scale after adjusting the ink.
If you need to mix the ink must prepare several disposable cups, respectively put the ink and oil into those cups, and then you can mix the inks. Do remember not to mix those inks directly, to avoid the whole bucket of ink mixing with other color ink.
After the ink is mixed well and when you leave the ink matches room, pay attention to your oil cup, and oil knife to whether there is a drops oils phenomenon, the ground can not have oil stains, and can not leave footprints, and ink prints. Keep the palette floor clean and spotless.
No matter what time you finish the ink mixing, you should be the first time to cover the ink barrel, to avoid debris falling into the ink barrel.

How do Screen Printing Factories Control the Color of Screen Printing Ink Mixing?

When the screen printing factories receive the screen printing order, it is often encountered that the color of the screen printing needs to be consistent with the color specified by the customer, that is, the spot color specified by the customer. When the Pantone color number is only told to you, such as 366C, 124C, and so on, how do we adjust the color consistent with the customer?

The so-called ink color mixing is two or more colors of ink, according to the different add ratios, the formation of a color combination, and making thousands of different colors based on five basic colors.

Therefore, in the early stage, we must make the sample according to the original manuscript. When the sample color difference is small or equal compared with the original manuscript, we can deploy a large quantity. The time should be short and the amount of making should be appropriate. Making too little, resulting in shutdown, and ink color difference, meanwhile, affect normal production. If making too much will lead to unnecessary waste.

Color adjustment of screen printing ink is usually carried out in a place where the light is stable or not directly illuminated. In this way, the color is more accurate.

The following is our summary of the general direction of color mixing, for your reference.

Color matching method:

White + black = gray
Black + red + yellow = coffee
Blue + yellow = green
Blue + red = purple
Blue + white = light blue
Red + white = pink

Special ink color:

Silver gray, mainly white, slightly add the silver pulp and black ink.
Jade: mainly white, slightly add medium yellow and fluorescent orange.
Beige: mainly white, slightly add filemot, medium yellow, and light black.
Pink: mainly white, with a little peach and fluorescent orange.
Gray: mainly white, slightly add peacock blue and light yellow.
Light blue: mainly white, slightly add medium blue.
Lake blue: mainly white, slightly add peacock blue.
Flesh color: mainly diluent, slightly add transparent orange-red and medium yellow.
Snow green: mainly white, with light red and reddish blue
Ivory: mainly diluent, with hints of medium yellow, peacock blue, and orange-red.

In addition, screen printing ink also needs such as: fluorescent yellow, fluorescent pink, fluorescent blue and other special color ink.

Screen printing ink color matching should pay attention to a few points

The concentration of screen printing ink is related to the substrate material and selected mesh number. Different material selections of different mesh and different ink concentrations. If making the ink concentrated high will block the screen mesh, and if making the ink concentrated too low, the printing will paste the screen mesh.

1. When matching ink color, different colors of ink should be added as little as possible. The fewer kinds of ink color, the better the mixing effect.
2. Using the ink matching principle of "from shallow to deep", regardless of the preparation of light or bright color ink. When the color is close to the client's sample, should be careful. For inks from different manufacturers, it is best not to use them together, try your best to use the same manufacturer of different colors of ink to match, otherwise, it will produce the phenomenon of uneven color, serious will appear condensation, and make ink scrap.
3. Some screen printing ink is dried via the heating oven. After drying, the light color will become lighter than the undried one, and the dark color will be darker. In addition, the tone of ink in printing before drying and after drying is different, which is a problem that can not be ignored.

Practical experience tells us that through natural drying (solvent volatile ink), the substrate is plastic, metal, paper, or glass, and the color will not change.

However, the ink for ceramic materials, because the color will display after the burning oxidation, can only be adjusted by experience. For the screen printing ink that drying by thermal setting and light setting, the color will be different in dark and light, should use the color after the thermal&light processing to do mass production. For example, in glass screen printing ink, the color before printing and the color after tempering is not consistent.

Another point to emphasize is that all the well mixed ink colors need to proofread on the substrate that is about to do screen printing.Even though print the same color on different materials,the color effect is not the same.

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