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Printing Biosensor Test Strips - 6 reasons why Rotary Screen Printing enables more test capacity

The COVID-19 pandemic put immense pressure on societies worldwide, and because of that, the demand for more and faster testing capacity became greater than ever before. Pharmaceutical companies strive to make rapid test devices as available to the public as possible, but innovative technologies are necessary to do so. 

Biosensor Test Strips are an innovative technology, but with the short-term demand for millions of test strips for a virus that’s still relatively new, companies are facing a challenging task. Rotary screen printing might be the solution for this challenge. In this blog, I will explain how this printing method can solve the increased global demand for more test capacity.

[The Link] How to improve your Rotary Screen Printing process without changing the printing process itself

In rotary screen printing, several factors influence the quality of your printing results, such as the printing paste and the screens you use. The price you pay is — of course — also related to these factors. There is good news about that. SPGPrints introduced a way to reduce process costs and improve product quality, without having to change the process itself. This will increase your competitiveness in the printing business.

We developed RandomScreen® Eco specifically to be both economically and technologically advantageous. The most important adjustment? This screen allows more control on the print process and paste deposition than standard 125mesh screens. It brings other interesting features like a random adjustment of the holes and superior stability. In this blog, I will explain how this contributes to your printing results and whether this suits your printing process.

[The Note] What is the break-even point for rotary screen printing and digital textile printing?

The difference in costs between rotary screen textile printing and digital textile printing is interesting, to say the least. This counts especially for companies that combine both printing methods or printing companies that are in a transition phase to digital printing.

In a previous blog, we mentioned that rotary screen printing becomes more economical as the run lengths get longer. This raises an interesting question. Is there a break-even point at which the costs of digital and rotary screen printing cross? And if so, does that mean rotary screen printing is always the better choice for run lengths beyond this break-even point? In this blog, I will explain which factors determine where this break-even point occurs.

[The Note] Digital pigment printing: the eternal promise or a close reality?

Approximately half of all printed textile volume in the world is printed with pigment printing. Almost all of this pigment printing is done conventionally, with rotary screen printing. Digital pigment printing is still very rare. Why is that? 

Although digital pigment printing is likely to become major technology in the future, we are not there yet. There are 3 major drawbacks that need to be solved in order to make digital pigment printing profitable. In this blog I will explain what makes digital pigment printing challenging to execute.

[The Note] Digital sampling for rotary screen printing: is it possible and when does it make sense?

Nowadays, many printing companies combine both digital textile printing and rotary screen printing. An understandable choice, because both print forms have their own advantages and disadvantages. By combining them, you get the best of both worlds.

However, using two printing processes side by side also raises questions. One of the frequently asked questions to SPGPrints from our customers has to do with sampling. Can you make a digital sample for a design that will be printed conventionally? And if you can, does it make any sense at all to do this? In this blog I will explain the importance of sampling and what this means for the combination of digital and rotary screen printing within your company.

[The Link] Difficult designs in rotary screen printing: 3 reasons why Ortascreens™ can improve your results

In rotary screen printing, you often need to cover high-quality requests from brand owners and consumers. Geometric, micro- and halftone designs will be the most challenging to create. But what makes these designs so special? 

In a printing process, several elements have to be combined: the fabric, the screen and the design. The matching of these three elements can be hard in rotary screen printing, especially with the aforementioned difficult designs, but there is another way to look at it. All of these elements reflect rasters: a repetition of small elements in a regular grid structure. To make difficult designs easier to print, SPGPrints developed an orthogonal screen: the Ortascreen™. But how do orthogonal screens contribute to your rotary screen printing process? In this blog, I will explain 3 advantages of these screens.

The information below is visualized in an animation. Watch it here.

[The Note] When to use rotary screen printing and when to choose for digital textile printing?

Both rotary screen printing and digital textile printing are still widely used in the textile printing industry. Several printing companies, solution providers and trendwatchers expected (or wished?) that digital would one day replace rotary screen printing entirely. The truth is that both types of printing have their own advantages and disadvantages, which makes it logical for them to coexist (as explained in this previous blog). That gives printing companies a difficult choice to make. Which type suits their printing process and products best? Is it more profitable to print conventionally, or does digital printing provide more advantages in the long run? Many printing companies today have both digital and rotary screen printing in house. But when to use which technology?

In this blog I will list 7 different factors that show the differences between rotary screen printing and its digital counterpart. With the help of this list you can make a targeted choice. Not only does this have a positive effect on efficiency, but also on quality and customer satisfaction. That being said, let's take a look at these decisive factors.

[The Note] Combining digital and rotary: does a hybrid printing machine make sense?

Many printing companies nowadays use both digital and rotary screen printers within their production process. Wouldn’t combining the two printing methods in a hybrid printing machine make more sense?

A logical question, especially when you consider that there are manufacturers that offer single-pass digital machines with one or more rotary stations implemented. It does not look like a difficult mechanical/electrical job and a printer that can print digitally as well as rotary sounds like a useful asset for many companies. However, in the view of SPGPrints hybrid printing machines are rarely a sound investment. In this blog I will explain why. 

Note: we assume in this blog that a customer’s desire for a hybrid printer is based on the wish to combine both technologies in the same print job. You could also assume that the printer prints either only rotary or only digital in a job, in which case all the arguments in this blog would not be valid. But we deem that type of application not the basis for the request for a hybrid printer.