Screen printing is a printing technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. Screen printing is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of polyester or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance. Ink is forced into the mesh openings by the fill blade or squeegee and by wetting the substrate, transferred onto the printing surface during the squeegee stroke. As the screen rebounds away from the substrate the ink remains on the substrate.
Screen T-shirt printing machines are being increasingly used to print T-shirts, having same design, in bulk to meet rising demand from large companies, NGOs, and communities etc. in Asia Pacific. As a result, spending on screen T-shirt printing machines is projected to increase by vendors, particularly focusing on providing low-cost customized T-shirts to their customers.
The t-shirt printing machines is highly fragmented with large number of local players in each regional market. Some major players in the global custom t-shirt printing market are Brother International Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, ColDesi, Inc, Kornit Digital, The M&R Companies, Mimaki Global, Anajet, Konica Minolta, Inc., Mutoh Belgium nv, Mciroscreen Production Pte. Ltd, KP Tech Machine Pvt Ltd and several others.