THE SQUEEGEE
What role does the squeegee play in the thickness of the ink deposit?
It plays an extremely important role.
But first, regarding the squeegee I would like to put aside some preconceived ideas completely wrong or
outdated, as well as certain ways of using it!
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• There are still people who believe that the squeegee "pushes the ink through the screen"... This
is, as scientifically proven for over 30 years, completely false....
The squeegee "puts into contact" the underside of the screen (with the ink contained therein)
and the transfer of the ink is done according to the rules that I stated in the complete article, in
the part devoted to "fluid mechanics".
• I have seen screen printers that "push" the squeegee from front to back giving it various more or
less bizarre angles ("open" or "closed") ... aberrant!
You must of course "pull" the squeegee from the back to the front. I also don't really like
machines that print from front to back. But "we make do with it"...
• And of course, this strange thing which prompted me to write this article: the double, even triple
squeegee stroke, manual or mechanical, that I still see so often in factories, workshops, and
videos, especially in textile printing. garments" of course!
If we are forced to use this technique to correctly "empty" the screen and deposit more ink, it is
because we have made a certain number of errors in the choices and preparation of all the
elements which participate in the printing, as I have just shown and will finish doing it with the
various remaining parameters.
The manner and width of the tangential support provided by the blade of the squeegee in
"pressure and movement" is of vital importance in the transfer of the ink and the thickness of its
layer which, as I will specify below, depend greatly on the thickness of ink deposited by the
flood-bar (or manual flooding)