How to become a Screen Printer
Screen printers set up and operate power-driven or hand-operated screen printing machines to create images.
Personal requirements for a Screen Printer
- Enjoy practical and manual activities
- Good eyesight (may be corrected) with normal colour vision
- Good hand-eye coordination
- Creativity
- Self-motivated
- Good problem-solving skills.
Duties & Tasks of a Screen Printer
Screen printers may perform the following tasks:
- Prepare stencils to be printed by handcutting, photographic or electronic methods
- Choose, mix and match coloured inks and load ink into printing machines
- Load paper, fabric, plastic or other material onto printing machines, making sure that objects to be printed are lined up correctly and, if there is more than one colour, that the colours are properly aligned
- Control machines and check the quality of printing
- Keep records of work completed
- Put the stencils onto a mesh fabric-printing screen and operate the printing machine, then dry the printed items by loading them into drying racks or dryers using hot air or ultraviolet light
- Unload printed items from drying racks and stack them
- Remove waste, clean and maintain machines, and maintain and care for equipment including cameras and lenses, screens, stops and filters.
