About ScreenPrint Foundry
I'm a screen printing engineer based in China. My day job is printing parts that end up inside cars — interior trim, mostly — which means the work has to hold up to heat, sunlight, abrasion, and years of being touched. It's a different world from printing t-shirts, but the fundamentals are the same, and the fundamentals are what this site is about.
On the line, screen printing is only one step of the process. Around it I work with thermoforming, CNC machining, laser engraving, die cutting, and industrial robots. That's where the perspective of this site comes from: not a hobby bench, and not a sales brochure, but a production floor where a misprint has a cost and a deadline.
Why this site exists
Three reasons, honestly.
First, record. Every production problem I've solved — mesh tension drifting, ink not sticking to a plastic substrate, an exposure that came out soft — I eventually forget the details unless I write them down. This site is my notebook, made public.
Second, learn. Explaining something to a stranger forces you to actually understand it. Writing these guides is how I keep sharpening my own craft.
Third, share. When I search for answers to real production questions, most of what comes up is marketing copy from equipment sellers or shallow hobby tutorials. If you've ever looked for a straight answer about off-contact distance or adhesive promotion on polypropylene, you know the gap. I write the articles I wished existed, and I hope they save you some of the trial and error I went through.
And if the site helps me meet a few people who care about this craft as much as I do — even better. Write to me anytime.
What you'll find here
- Process — the craft: mesh, emulsion, exposure, curing, troubleshooting
- Materials — inks and substrates, especially plastics, and why some combinations fight you
- Equipment — presses, dryers, and tools, judged by what survives a production schedule
- Quality — adhesion tests, tolerances, and what "good" actually means in industrial work
- Automotive — my home turf: printing interior trim parts, where the standards are unforgiving
- Tools — free calculators and converters, like the mesh count converter, built from questions that come up on the floor
How this site makes money
Display ads and affiliate links. If you buy a product through a link here, the seller may pay me a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never decides what I recommend — I link what I would actually use on the line. Details are in the privacy policy.
Corrections welcome
I write from real experience, but my experience is one factory, one set of materials, one part of the industry. If you do things differently — or I got something wrong — tell me. Corrections get priority in my inbox.