Custom silk screen printed silicone products

Custom silk screen printed silicone products

Silicone keypads are a common accessory in both daily life and industrial applications. Screen printing is a very mature technology that silicone product manufacturers often use to provide custom logos and decorations for silicone keypads. Silicone keypad products are made of silicone rubber and formed by high-temperature silicone molding to form the required button surface, and then go through processes such as spraying, screen printing, and die-cutting to form the required text and patterns on the surface. They are mainly used in automotive keypads, instrument and equipment keypads, controllers, and remote control keypads.

Common application of screen printing technology

Custom automotive silicone keypads

Custom Silicone remote control keypads

Custom instrument and equipment silicone keypads

Custom POS machine silicone rubber keypads

How do you perform silk screen printing on custom silicone products?

The first step is to prepare some necessary production materials and tools, such as silicone products, screen printing ink, printing screens, scraper, and drying equipment. Before screen printing silicone products, it is necessary to ensure the quality and availability of these tools and materials to ensure the quality of the screen printing effect.

The second step is to clean the surface of the silicone product to ensure that there are no dust, grease, or other contaminants on the surface.

The third step is to use professional equipment and materials to make the printing screen. The quality and detail of the screen printing are the key to high-quality screen printing.

Step 4: All the preparation work is finished, start silk screen printing of silicone products. First, apply printing ink on the printing screen and use a scraper to scrape the ink evenly on the screen so that the ink fills the pattern on the screen. Next, place the silicone product on the back of the printing screen, using appropriate pressure Transfer the ink to the surface of the silicone product and allow the ink to contact the surface of the silicone product fully. Finally, the printed silicone product is placed in the drying equipment to dry until the ink is dry and fixed on its surface.

Precautions when operating silk screen characters on custom silicone products

Choose the appropriate screen printing ink and printing screen to ensure screen printing quality and durability.

Control the strength and speed of the scraper to avoid excessive ink or the scraper scratching the surface of the key.

During the screen printing operation, technicians pay attention to hygiene and safety and avoid ink contact with the skin.

Common problems and solutions during silk screen printing operations for custom silicone products

Screen marks

Screen marks are a relatively common phenomenon, which leads to incomplete characters on the surface of silicon products after screen printing. The main reason for the occurrence of screen marks is the use of thicker ink and a screen with a coarser mesh. Therefore, choosing an ink with better fluidity and a screen with a finer mesh for screen printing can solve the problem of screen marks.

Bubble

Generally, bubbles are produced when silk-printing larger characters. The main reasons for bubbles are too fast screen printing speed, uneven strength of the scraper, unclean product surface, poor ink quality, and uneven viscosity. These problems are generally solved by cleaning the surface of silicone products, speeding up screen printing, and adding defoaming agents.

The reason why screen-printed characters on silicone products are easy to erase

After the silk screen printing process is completed, it often appears that the product characters are not wear-resistant or the text becomes lighter in color after being rubbed hard. Generally, the reasons why silk screen characters are easily erased are as follows:

First of all, the surface of the silicone product is not clean or contaminated by other substances. During the silicone screen printing process, the ink cannot completely contact and penetrate the surface of the silicone product, which will cause the characters to fall off as soon as they are wiped.

Second, if the baking temperature does not meet the requirements or the baking time is too short after the screen printing is completed, the screen printing ink will not be fully cured.

Third, the technician forgot to add the ink-curing agent when debugging the ink.

Fourth, expired ink or other human factors can cause characters to fall off.

Silkscreen friction test method for silicone products

Common silicone keypads or silicone products use silk screen technology to firmly adhere various patterns, characters and LOGOs to their surfaces. How to judge the adhesion of ink? The more popular screen printing friction test methods include: alcohol, butter, and 3M tape.

The alcohol test method is to drop a few drops of alcohol onto the surface of the silicone product and, a few minutes later rub a dry cloth up and down on the character area.

The method of testing butter is a kind of alcohol test, which requires putting a few drops of butter on the surface of the silicone product and rubbing it up and down.

The test method for adhesive tape is relatively simple. You only need to stick 3M adhesive to the surface of the characters and peel off the adhesive after a few minutes.

After the above test, if the silk screen text or pattern changes color or falls off, it means there is a quality problem in the silk screen printing.

QUICK LINKS

PRODUCT CATEGORY

ABOUT

CONTACT