Screen printing: Flat bed and Rotar

Printing paste or dye poured on screen and forced through its unblocked
areas onto the fabric
Attached stencil forms open areas of mesh to transfer ink pressed through
the mesh as sharp-edged image on fabric
Roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping
ink past the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas
Based on type of screen used, 'Flat Screen Printing' or 'Rotary Screen
Printing

Flat screen printing

Rotary screen printing

Squeegee used

Roller is used

Lower productivity

Higher productivity

For smaller widths (45-50)

For larger widths

Suitable for high pile fabrics

Used for carpets and other

types of pile fabrics

Low initial cost of investment

More expensive machine

Benefits

For designs with high level of vibrancy, printing on dark ground

Used to larger orders.
Offers better quality imaging, gets deeply absorbed, lasts longer.
Clearer edges to image printing

Problems
Different screen for each colour, one at a time, combined.
Flat-bed printing at lower speeds, affect the production
Rely upon the production of a design on a screen, or roller
Uneconomic for short runs because of high downtime, high wastage
of fabric and print paste, high engraving costs and high labour costs
Costs escalate with number of screens

Roller printing

Machine counter part of block printing

Also referred as intaglio or machine printing

Engraved copper cylinders or rollers are used, separate roller for each color

Each revolution, repeat of design is printed

Doctor blade, scraps away all of the paste except for that contained in the
engraving

Cleaning blade on the other side scraps away any lint picked up from the
fabric

Pressure of the engraved roller against the fabric causes the design to be
transferred

Passed into a drying and then steam chamber where the moisture and heat
sets the dye

Essential to apply the light colors before the darker ones

Suffers from fabric-width limitation, above 1.2 m width, rollers bend under

Used for very large batches but faces great competition from rotary screen
printing
Capable of producing very sharp outlines to the printed pattern which is
especially important for small figure
Crush effect:
Applying several colors in one drawing on several rollers
Each printing roller applies one color
Each color will be crushed by the following rollers as many times as
there are colors left to be applied
The color will be pushed more and more through the fabric to be
printed. Deep colors are hard to obtain, which benefits screen printing
Engraving printing rollers is an expensive operation which raises the price
of the roller printing technique considerably
Efficiency:

Roller Printing

92m Per Minute

Hand Screen Printing

1.5m Per Minute

Flat Bed Screen Printing

8m Per Minute

Rotary Screen Printing

54m Per Minute (Seamless

40")

Consumer survey

Almost everyone knows about this art and more than 90% people have
purchased block printed products
Most bought product being ethnic wear(32%), followed by bags(24%) and
unstitched fabric(20%), western wear and home furnishing being the least
at 12% and 6% respectively
The most desired fabric for block printing is cotton(40%) followed by
similar heavy fabrics like khadi(18%), silk(12%). Also it is seen people want
it on synthetic fabrics (polycotton, polyester,acrylic,nylon,rayon) at 26%
which is only possible by screen printing and not tradition hand block
printing.

Products purchased

Fabric preference
20

NIL; 6% Western wear; 12%

13

Bags; 24%
Unstitched fabric; 20%

9
6

Home furnishing; 6%
Ethnic wear; 32%

Cambric/Linen Cotton

Khadi

Silk

Synthetic

Major discouraging factors are colour fastness, fabric quality and not being
fashionable enough. Price, availability and branding are not seen as problem
areas for consumers.

Motivating factors: It is the traditional look, availability on different fabrics

due to screen and digital printing and prices of block printed products

Motivating factors

Discouraging factors
1
7
25
12
6
0

4
7
20
17
2

12
19
11
8
0

5
3
6
26
15
0

4
12

11

16

22

16
2

11
4
2

4 4
5
5
9 11
3
25 26
23 10
15 11 13 20 13
6
11
0 4 5
4 11
0 12

3
5
15
17
10

Important factors: Traditional look, different fabrics, price,

quality and trendiness for block printing.

Trendy0
Craftmenship

6
4

Quality0
Price
Variety of fabrics

16
17

0%

13

11

18

14

13

14

9
20%

30%
1

14

13

20
40%

50%

4
12

18

10%

27

5
5

13

17

11

Imperfections in printing0
Traditional look0

15

60%

8
70%

80%

90%

100%

Conclusion

It is important for printers to come up with new styles and trends

along with traditional look attached to it
Mostly consumers associate block printing with heavy fabrics like
cotton, khadi and silk only but bringing these prints on synthetics
fabrics will attract consumers who like synthetic fabrics and these
will be available at lower price as these will be screen printed or
digitally printed, making the production faster and cheaper