What is emulsion screen printing

Posted by Jeffrey Gononsky on

Emulsion screen printing essentially means that you coat your silkscreen with photo emulsion.  This process is a little messy for beginners, but as you become more proficient your completed silk screens will take on a nice uniform professional look.

To properly apply your photo emulsion to your silkscreen, it is recommended that you utilize a scoop coater to evenly apply the photo emulsion to your silkscreen.

The emulsion application process should be done in a nice smooth even coat on the print side of the silkscreen. 

3 Steps to Coating your Silkscreen with Emulsion

  1. The screen should be held at a 45 degree angle and coated upwards.
  2. Then the silkscreen should be flipped around 180 degrees and coated again. 
  3. Let the silkscreen dry, then repeat the process.

Photo Emulsions come in different varieties, and is primarily dependent on the type of ink system you will be printing with.  Emulsion selection will be discussed in another blog post, but keep in mind, that there are three basic types of photo emulsion.

There are 3 Basic Types of Photo Emulsion

  1. Water Resistant
  2. Plastisol Resistant
  3. Solvent Resistant