6 Popular Printing Methods Explained

6 Popular Printing Methods Explained

6 Popular Printing Methods Explained

Believe it or not, printing has been around since before 3000 BC, when Mesopotamians used engraved cylinder seals for rolling impressions onto wet clay tablets (see above photo). Today, printing methods have greatly evolved, with a variety of technologies, inks, and materials used. Nearly every product manufactured today has been printed on in some way.

Read below to familiarize yourself with six popular modern printing techniques, their processes, and common uses for each of them.  

 

1. FLEXOGRAPHY

WHAT IS IT?

The most common printing method used for product packaging, flexography uses flexible rubber or polymer plates with printed areas raised as a 3D relief. The flexible plate is adhered to a printing cylinder, which transfers deposited ink to the print material. Flexography is often called a modern version of letterpress.   

THE PROCESS

  1. The ink pan is a large bowl filled with ink.
  2. The fountain roll transfers the ink from the ink pan to the anilox roll, as each one rotates. Excess ink is scraped off of the anilox roll using a doctor blade.
  3. The plate cylinder rotates, which transfers the ink from the anilox roll onto the raised areas of the printing plate.
  4. As the plate cylinder rotates, the impression cylinder pulls the print material through and the relief plate prints on the material.

COMMON USES

  • Printing product labels for packaging
  • Printing bottle and can labels
  • Printing paper and plastic shopping bags
 

2. DIGITAL PRINTING

WHAT IS IT?

Digital printing refers to methods of printing that transfer an image from a computer or other digital storage device directly onto the print material. Digital printing techniques do not utilize printing plates.

 

COMMON USES

  • Personal printing for home and office use
  • Large format printing
  • Small quantity printing
 

3. LASER PRINTING

WHAT IS IT?

A type of digital printing that utilizes a laser beam to form an image on an electrically charged drum, which attracts toner, or powdered ink to the print material.  

THE PROCESS

  1. A laser beam projects the desired image of the page onto an electrically charged, rotating, cylindrical drum.
  2. As the laser beam hits the drum in the select areas, it erases its positive charge and replaces it with a negative charge. Empty areas of the document remain positive, while all areas to be printed are now negatively charged.
  3. Positively charged powdered ink, or toner, particles are electrostatically attracted to the negatively charged areas of the drum that have been laser-beamed.
  4. The paper feeds up towards the drum and is given a strong positive electrical charge as it moves along.
  5. As the paper moves near the drum, its positive charge attracts the negatively charged toner particles away from the drum.
  6. The toner particles are transferred from the drum onto the paper.
  7. The paper is passed through a fuser unit, which uses heat and pressure to permanently fuse the image onto the paper.

COMMON USES

  • Printing cable labels and wire labels
  • Printing barcode labels
  • Printing price labels for retail
  • Printing laboratory equipment labels
  • Printing labels for medical applications
 

4. THERMAL TRANSFER PRINTING

WHAT IS IT?

A type of digital printing process that utilizes a heated ribbon to produce a durable, long lasting image on the print material. 

 

THE PROCESS

  1. The ribbon is fed through the thermal transfer printer between the labels and the thermal print head. The ribbon is comprised of either a wax or resin-based ink.
  2. The thermal print head, which is made up of tiny heating pins, heats up the ribbon.
  3. A microprocessor in the printhead determines which heating pins need to be activated in order to produce the desired image. The printhead produces a dot of heat for each dot in the desired image.
  4. The activated pins rapidly heat the ribbon, which melts and transfers the ink from the ribbon onto the label. The ink is instantly cooled, which glues the ink to the label permanently.

COMMON USES

  • Printing jewelry tags
  • Printing cable labels and wire labels
  • Printing barcode labels
  • Printing labels for medical or chemical containers
  • Printing labels for laboratory supplies and test tubes
 

5. DOT MATRIX PRINTING

WHAT IS IT?

Also known as impact printing, dot matrix printing is one of the older techniques in printing technology, reaching popularity in the 1970s. However, dot matrix printing is still somewhat popular, due to its extremely low “price-per-page” ratio. Using ink soaked pins to print, text printed with a dot matrix printer have a signature “dotted” appearance when viewed close-up. 

 

THE PROCESS

  1. Inked ribbon sits between a piezoelectric print head and the labels.
  2. The print head pushes pins out to make a pattern of the desired image.
  3. As the pins push out, they press the inked ribbon into the label, creating tiny dots that form the desired image.

COMMON USES

  • Printing cable labels and wire labels
  • Printing mailing labels

6. SCREEN PRINTING

WHAT IS IT?

Screen printing, or silkscreening, is a printing technique that creates a sharp-edged image using mesh fabric, a stencil, and paint-like ink.  

 

THE PROCESS

  1. A screen is made from a piece of porous, mesh fabric stretched over a wooden or metal frame. The fabric was originally made of silk, hence the term silkscreening. However, since the 1940s, polyester and nylon are more common choices.
  2. A stencil is produced on the screen either manually or photochemically, which blocks off the areas of the image where ink is not desired.
  3. The screen is placed on top of the print material.
  4. Ink with a paint-like consistency is placed on top of the screen, and is pushed evenly through the screen openings using a squeegee. The ink passes through the open spaces and onto the print material.
  5. If more than one color is being printed, once the ink dries, the process is repeated with a different screen and a different ink color.

COMMON USES

  • T-shirt and garment printing
  • Printing posters
  • Wood, glass, metal, and fabric printing

 

  Here at Label ID Systems, we offer a variety of different labels for different printing methods such as flexography, thermal transfer printing, laser printing, and dot-matrix printing. For more information on our wide variety of labels, visit our website or contact our friendly customer service team through email or phone at (480) 966-2999.
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