go to text

Screen Printing Column (29)

~Relationship between skilled, ordinary and squeegee~

When the squeegee is set on the printing machine, there is a work to be done without fail, left and right balance adjustment of the squeegee pushing amount. If this balance is lost, printing pressure becomes uneven during printing, which is one of the causes of variations in printed film thickness. Therefore, adjusting the left-right balance of the squeegee pushing amount is an important task for screen printing.
 
A common adjustment method is to use 2 strips of paper. As a procedure, first place 2 pieces of paper on the printing table in the direction perpendicular to the squeegee. A paper width of 20 mm is appropriate. Next, lightly touch the squeegee to the piece of paper and pull the piece of paper by hand. Based on the feel of the hand at this time, adjust the adjustment knob of the printing machine to balance the squeegee pushing amount.
This task requires some skill. When I started screen printing a long time ago, I had a hard time adjusting the balance. When I asked my experienced seniors how accurate this balance adjustment needed to be, they just said, "Do what I tell you!"
 
So this time, I did an experiment.
 
First, we asked a veteran employee who has worked for NEWLONG SEIMITSU KOGYO for 30 years to adjust the balance of the squeegee. Next, we changed the left and right balance by 10μm, and found the limit value at which a super veteran employee can distinguish the difference in balance.
 
For an experiment, our large printing machine LS-56TVA was attached with a squeegee, a length of 600 mm. a super experienced employee was able to discern a balance difference of 25 μm. Therefore, when an ordinary person like me conducted the same experiment, we were able to discriminate up to a difference of 50 μm. As expected, ordinary people could not understand 25 μm. What if the balance is lost by 100 μm or more? At this point, even a monkey in a zoo will be able to tell the difference in balance.
 
Then, in places where there are no super veterans, do we have to put up with 50 μm, which is the level of ordinary people? No, I have a great helper.SB Tester and SB Major.
This device can measure printing pressure with high sensitivity using a pressure sensor. This device can adjust the balance up to 25 μm difference. Exactly like a super veteran employee!! The super veteran employees are also surprised.
 
If you have trouble adjusting the balance of the squeegee, please try it.
NEWLONG SEIMITSU KOGYO CO.,LTD.
〒141-0022
3-21-5 Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo-to
TEL.03-3473-1155
FAX: 03-3473-5055
Back to TOP