SILK SCREEN PRINTING ON PRESSED CD AND DVD

Silk-screen printing is one of the processes used for high volume manufacture (500 or more) and provides the type of finish you will find on your Audio CD purchased in a High Street shop.

Silk-screen CD or DVD presses have indentations in a round table top for the discs to be set into. The tables are part of a robotic system and are usually loaded from a spindle full of discs by a robotic arm. Robotic arms operate the actual "screens”, and lower each disc onto the table as it rotate into position.

The pre-determined colour of Ink is applied by an automated controlled dispenser. A robotic squeegee then spreads the ink across the screen which in turn transfers it to the disc. After each colour is applied, the automated table rotates to the next position (actually, they frequently skip one position to allow some air-drying between coats, so you can have two "sets" of discs being labelled at once.) Each position on the system has a different colour and different screen. The ink is applied in an exact measured amount so that there is no dripping or bleeding. The inks are specially formulated for silk-screening to lacquered CD or DVD surface, There are stations on the table with UV lamps for curing the ink before they are removed from the press by a robotic arm and stacked on an output spindle for spindle bundling or packing.