Adaptive screen printing for rapid manufacturing

Abstract

Purpose

To develop a rapid manufacturing process for high‐volume free from fabrication of parts that is based on the high speed printing method which is screen printing. This technique will also be applied for printing in general.

Design/methodology/approach

This method involves continuous change in a layer's pattern (negative image of the layer) according to a very thin slice of the object to be printed. Three adaptive screen printing methods are proposed as an alternative to two dimensional screen printing. A comparative analysis is conducted and the possibility of combining the method is proposed.

Findings

Each of the three methods studied required further work as they all had major constraints. However, their combination may be the solution to the development of a rapid manufacturing process.

Originality/value

The originality is in the adaptive screen principle the screen being used will be capable to auto‐change the pattern of the layer to be printed instead of introducing a new stencil for every layer as in conventional screen printing.

Citation

Fouchal, F. and Dickens, P. (2007), "Adaptive screen printing for rapid manufacturing", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 13 No. 5, pp. 284-290. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552540710824788