Printing Techniques with a Printing Master

Abstract

Printing technologies with a master are also referred to as conventional printing technologies. The printing plate is an information-carrying medium for all the procedures, which is defined by the openings in the printing master (screen printing), the surface relief (gravure printing and flexographic printing) or the differences in wetting (surface tensions) of a plane surface (offset printing). Information is generated on the printing substrate by the partial surface transfer of ink. All information is denoted by image elements (transferred ink) and non-image elements (no ink). Among them, screen printing is a wonderful technology which is especially beneficial for printing inks onto various rigid or flexible substrates, and the entire procedure is very simple, versatile and inexpensive. Roll-to-roll (R2R) printing is considered to be a leading candidate for the manufacture of flexible and low-cost printed electronic devices in the near future. In this chapter, the printing techniques used with a master for printed electronics are illustrated, including common screen printing, R2R printing, etc.