Silkscreen printing and thermal transfer printing

As a manufacturer of TPU tape and coated webbing, the main two kinds of printing technology we use are silkscreen printing and thermal transfer printing. Because of different work principle of these two types of technology, they have different situation of using.

Generally, to print logo on TPU tape, silkscreen printing is supposed to be chosen. The pattern printed by silkscreen printing is in vivid and solid color. Through silkscreen printing, logo on clear TPU tape is obvious and able to maintain the original color of pattern. But it has two shortage. The one is that silkscreen printing can only print one color with one model. In an other word, if you wan to print two colors on tape by silkscreen printing, you have to use two models. And the following problem is the increasing of cost. The second shortage is that silkscreen printing pattern can’t resist high temperature. So we should concern about it when processing printed tape. Here we have another article to explain how to print logo through silkscreen printing.

However, only clear transparent TPU tape can accept printing logo. Generally, we have clear transparent TPU tape and frosted elastic TPU tape. The frosted elastic tape can’t be printing logo because of its uneven surface. Besides, the high elasticity also increase the difficulty of tape traction.

On the other hand, thermal transfer printing is more suitable for textile. So when we produce coated webbing with printed inner webbing, we request thermal transfer printing rather than silkscreen printing. Just as description above, silkscreen printing isn’t suitable for high temperature processing.

Thermal transfer printing is a printing technology that prints patterns or text on the surface of an object by heat pressing. By this type of printing technology, the first step is to print the pattern or text on the thermal transfer paper. Then put the thermal transfer paper on the surface of the object to be printed under high temperature and high pressure. Finally the pattern will be transferred on the object. Because of melting and adhesion of heat-sensitive materials at high temperatures, patterns or characters can be fixed on the objects. Therefore, pattern printed through thermal transfer printing won’t be destroyed by high temperature. In addition, this type of printing technology don’t request any limit on colors. We can print any complex and colorful  pattern with the same cost.

Actually, the shortage of silkscreen printing is just the strength of thermal transfer printing. On contrast, the strength of silkscreen printing becomes the shortage of thermal transfer printing. Although thermal transfer printing cost less and be good at resisting high temperature, the color of pattern is much dimmer than silkscreen printing. That’s the one reason why we choose silkscreen printing to print logo on clear TPU tape.

Both silkscreen printing and thermal transfer printing own their advance and shortage. Only use them in right filed will bring you more.