Home Appliances Glass Printing Mesh Material
Screen printing is the most common process for printing the glass decorations on household appliances such as microwaves, oven doors, and ceramic hot plates/stove tops.
Household appliances have been decorated using screen printing methods for over 30 years. It is a reliable technology that is capable of printing opaque, full surface coatings, images, decorative contours and lines, and thick ink deposits of silver pastes for ceramic hotplates/stove tops.
Decorating appliance glass is integrated into the manufacturing process. Prior to printing, the glass goes through cutting, grinding and cleaning processes. Cleanliness and correct climate conditions are required during printing, and therefore, presses are located in separate rooms – and gloves must be worn to protect the glass from dirt, dust and human oils.
Inorganic inks/glass enamels (containing pigments, glass frits, solvent based binding agents and additives) and silver pastes are the most common inks used for decorating the different glass components.
Appliance decorations are printed using standard, automated printing presses that are inline with the preliminary production processes and are also connected with a lehr for curing the glass inks or silver pastes at a temperature of 600° C.
Mesh selection
Dimensionally stable PET 1500 polyester mesh is recommended for all household appliance decorating applications. Mesh specifications are selected based on the frame size, artwork and desired opacity and required ink deposit (for ceramic hot plate/stove top heating elements).