Avoid Lines with This Squeegee Technique

A tip from Kieth Stevens, recently published on Printwear: When I demonstrate screen printing techniques at seminars, people often ask why I don’t pull the squeegee perpendicular to the design. Instead, the squeegee is always skewed a few degrees. This technique is a product of evolution. After 37 years of printing and pulling a squeegee hundreds of thousands of times, I’ve noticed a pattern. In many instances the artwork across the top or bottom of the screen has a small mark at the edge of the image just where the squeegee enters the art or is leaving the design. That is because a squeegee held perpendicular stops or stutters for a second as it enters or exits the design. By pulling the squeegee just slightly at an angle as it enters, the image avoids this stuttering motion and virtually eliminates the chance for this little mark to appear. Kieth Stevens is the Western regional sales manager for International Coatings. He has been teaching screen printing for more than 10 years and is a regular contributor to International Coatings’ blogs. International Coatings manufactures a complete line of non-phthalate screen printing inks, including a wide variety of whites, specialty inks, special effects inks, color matching systems, additives and reducers. For more information on our products, please visit our website at www.iccink.com.