Silk screen glass & ceramic frit glass

Silk screened glass, also known as silk-screen printed glass, is a unique type of decorative glass technique to apply colors to glass for hiding the background and enhancing glass aesthetics. Silk screening process is made by printing a layer/coating of ink (or pigments) with pattern design on the glass surface through a fine screen mesh. After the silk screen pattern is printed on the glass, an oven process will be done to dry silk screen ink(pigments) and make it long-lasting coating on the glass. 

According to the oven and drying temperature, silk screened glass is divided into two categories: 

• low temperature silk screened glass 
• high temperature silk screened glass

For low temperature silk screening technique, the glass is usually tempered first, then silk screen pattern is printed on glass, finally the glass is put into the low temperature oven (usually 100~180℃) to dry the ink and make it long lasting. Without too high temperature impact, this layer of ink is more vivid and aesthetic, yet less durable and need to use with protection at the interior position.  

For high temperature silk screening technique, the pigments (ceramic frit or glass enamel) is printed on the glass firstly, then the glass is put to go through the tempering furnace (usually 680℃~720℃) for safety property, meanwhile the pigments get sintered and fused with the glass surface particles. The pigments becomes a permanent coating adhesion onto the glass surface, and wouldn’t be removed or damaged by scrubbing or chemical agents. As a result, this high temperature silk-screen printed glass is durable, scratch-proof, weather-resistant, UV-resistant, acid and moisture resistant, and the pigment color maintains for decades. High temperature silk screen glass is mainly used on the exposed and frequently scrubbed exterior surfaces. Colors are mainly black and gray, other colors are used less and are more expensive. 

Silk screen mesh

Silk screening process