Screen Printing
PTFE coated open mesh fabric conveyor belts are used in many screen printing operations to convey a printed product through a drying oven.
Belts vary in size from about 800 mm to 2000 mm in width and 8 m to 20m in length, although there are no standard sizes. The drying ovens tend to be fairly simple in their mechanical design using a static bar tracker at one end, and a driving roll (minimum diameter 250mm) covered in soft dimpled silicone rubber at the other.
Some screen print operations, use specially formulated inks that are quickly dried when exposed to Ultra Violet (UV) Radiation. In such systems KEVLAR belts must not be used.
Many operators use either (GORTEF 9002 4x4 PTFE GLASS) (GORTEF 9004 2x2 PTFE GLASS) glass belts edge reinforced with PTFE coated glass edges and joined. GORTEF 9002 is most commonly used. These glass belts give good service, but can be abused by operators when loading heavier products or products with sharp edges (e.g. printed circuit boards) . In such demanding applications or in extremely high speed applications GORTEF 9008 NOMEX belts offer superior performance characteristics.
Many types of products are screen printed, through a broad range of papers, cardboards and textiles. Leaflets, menus, brochures, advertising, fabrics, T-shirts, printed circuit boards and sports wear can all be screen printed.
