Screen printing originated in China, and lithographic printing, gravure printing, letterpress printing are also called the four major printing technologies. Due to the uniqueness of its printing methods and the wide range of printed materials, it has been widely used in electronic industries, ceramic decal industries, and textile printing and dyeing industries in addition to general paper printing. In recent years, the screen printing process has been used in a large number of industries such as in-mold injection molding, advertising, and signage.
In-mold label
In-mold injection molding technology is IMD (In-Mold Decoratiom), IMD is the internationally popular surface decoration technology, commonly used in mobile phone window lenses and housings, washing machine control panel, refrigerator control panel, air conditioning control panel, car dashboard, rice cooker control panel A variety of areas such as panels, signs and other appearance parts, set decorative and functional in one, and its products have entered millions of households.
The usual IMD process can be divided into IML (IN-MOLDFILM/LABEL) and IMR (IN-MOLDROLE) depending on whether there is a transparent protective film on the final product surface.
The Chinese name of IML is injection molded in mould inserts. The features of the process are very noticeable: the surface is a hardened transparent film (PC or PET), the middle is a printed pattern layer, and the back is an injection molded resin layer. The ink is sandwiched between the film and the resin, which allows the product to prevent the surface from being scratched and rubbed, and keeps the color clear for long periods of time.
IMR's Chinese name is in-mold transfer (thermal transfer or thermal transfer), this process is the pattern is printed on the film, through the film feeding machine to paste the film and the plastic mold cavity injection molding, injection molding after the pattern The ink layer is separated from the film, and the ink layer is left on the plastic part to obtain a plastic part with a decorative pattern on the surface. There is no transparent protective film on the surface of the final product, and the film is only a carrier in the production process. However, the advantages of IMR are the high degree of automation in production and the low cost of mass production. Disadvantages of the IMR: The printed pattern layer is only a few micrometers thick on the surface of the product. After the product is used for a period of time, it is easy to abrade the printed pattern layer, and it also tends to fade, causing the surface to be unattractive. In addition, the new product development cycle is long, the development cost is high, and the pattern color cannot realize the flexible change in small batches, which is also a weakness that the IMR process cannot overcome.