Process

Silk screen printing

The most common method for decorating plastic bottles. Low initial cost, it offers versatility of decorating effects. Printing is obtained by forcing ink through a photographically treated screen. Flame treatment is often required prior to decoration.

Economical for one color decoration and small runs. Dobble cost for two colors because each color is applied in a separate pass.

Epoxy-inks can be used for protection against scratching and for use with products that attack standard enamel inks. Ultra-violet inks is very resistant to scratches and dries quickly.
Danish Name Serigrafi
Category Surface coatings, Printing
Materials Epoxy-ink, Enamel-ink, UV-ink, Plastics (substrate), Ceramics (substrate)
Competing processes Pad printing
References Lerman Container Company (LCC), (USA)
D & C Serigrafi, (Denmark)
Price notes
DKK/part.color 5 parts 500 10000
Small (e.g. bottles 50-100 ml) 230 2.5 0.4
Medium (e.g. bottles 500-1000 ml) 230 3 0.5
Large (e.g. thermocan) 240 7 3
Price date 01-11-96
Price notes The price is calculated for one color printing. For two color printing the operational cost is double, for three colors three times, and so on. Average operational costs are about 0.45/0.65 DKK/part.color, depending on the size and the production volume.
Additional info For products which cannot be labelled (e.g. candels), operational costs are higher (about 1.5 DKK/part.color), because the lack of concurrence allows an increase of prices. Automatic machines have common production rates ranging between 1500/4500 parts/h.