GB1315538A - Printing member and method of making the same - Google Patents

Abstract

1315538 Electro-forming printing screens SCREEN PRINTING SYSTEMS Inc 1 July 1970 [2 July 1969] 31979/70 Heading C7B [Also in Divisions B6 and G2] A printing screen, or a blank from which a printing screen can be made, is produced by electrolytic deposition of a metal 16 which may be nickel on a sheet of wire mesh 10 which may be of stainless steel while the mesh is in contact with an electrically-conductive member 11. The member may be a steel plate with a polished surface, so that the nickel, which completely envelopes the mesh, can be stripped from it with a smooth surface. Preferably the nickel is electrolytically deposited from a nickel sulphamate bath, containing a plurality of nickel bars connected to an anode contact and with the mesh connected to a cathode of a rectifier. A further layer of nickel may be added after the mesh and its nickel coating have been removed from the steel plate. In place of a steel plate, the mesh may be wound about a polished metal mandrel, which during plating is surrounded by cicumferentially spaced anodes. An imaged printing screen may be made directly, without a subsequent etching step, by depositing a resist pattern 35 on a smooth surface of a plate 37, applying a mesh and electrolytically depositing metal on the mesh. Over the plate a deposit which closes the pores of the mesh is formed, but over the resist open pores remain between the plated wires.