Glass Silkscreen Printing
Glass silkscreen printing presses ink through a fine mesh to put borders, logos, icons and black masks onto glass. We print ceramic, epoxy, UV-cure, IR and conductive silver inks on float, tempered and chemically strengthened glass and Gorilla® Glass, with lines down to 0.127 mm and sheets up to 1828 × 1371 mm, in cleanroom conditions.
Capabilities
Inks
Ceramic frit, epoxy · UV-cure, IR, conductive silver
Detail
Lines to 0.127 mm in epoxy · 0.305 mm in ceramic ink
Sheet size
Up to 1828 × 1371 mm · Glass 0.76–25.4 mm thick
Colors
Black, white and silver · Custom color matching
Specialty prints
Dead front, edge printing · Bus bars on ITO
Environment
Class 1000 and 10,000 cleanrooms · Printed after machining
Gallery
Get a glass printing quote
Send the artwork as vector files, the glass and how it is strengthened, colors, and whether the printed area will be bonded or backlit, and we will recommend the ink and print order.
Choose the Ink
The ink decides how fine the print can be, how tough it is, and where it falls in the production order.
| Ink | How it cures | Finest line | Thickness per pass | Best for | Printed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceramic frit | Fired at 520–600 °C, fusing into the glass | 0.305 mm | 35–60 µm | Appliance, lighting and outdoor panels that must resist scratching | Before thermal tempering, fired in the furnace |
| Epoxy or polyester | Baked | 0.127 mm | 10–12 µm; 25–60 µm double pass | Fine borders, icons and logos on cover glass | After strengthening |
| UV-cure | UV exposure | — | — | Fast curing of multi-color work | After strengthening |
| IR ink | Baked | — | — | Black areas that must pass infrared over sensors | After strengthening |
| Conductive silver | Baked | — | — | Bus bars and traces on ITO-coated glass | After strengthening |
Ceramic ink is the toughest but the coarsest, and it can only go on glass that is about to be thermally tempered. Epoxy prints three times finer and suits chemically strengthened cover glass, where the glass never sees furnace temperatures again.
How a Printed Panel Is Made
- 01
Finish the glass
Cutting, CNC machining, edging and chemical strengthening are completed first; ceramic-ink parts go to print before thermal tempering instead.
- 02
Clean
Panels are cleaned and printed straight away, so no dust or fingerprints reach the printing face.
- 03
Print in a cleanroom
Each color is printed through its own screen in a Class 1000 or 10,000 cleanroom; with UV inks, dark colors go down before light ones.
- 04
Cure or fire
Organic inks are baked or UV cured; ceramic ink is fired as the glass is tempered.
- 05
Inspect
Each lot is checked for registration, color, pinholes and adhesion before coating or packing.
What to Check on Printed Glass
Adhesion
Standard colors are cross-hatch tested to 4B, with less than 5% of the grid flaked. Multi-layer overprints are held to 3B, 5–15% flaked. Metallic, mirror-silver, semi-transparent and IR inks are tape tested and must show no ink removal at all. State the test for each ink on your drawing.
Opacity and pinholes
A black mask over a backlit display needs a double pass, 25–60 µm thick, so no light leaks through. Pinholes are checked on a light table, because one dust particle in the screen shows as a bright point once the display is on.
Ink thickness where parts are bonded
Where the printed face is optically bonded or laminated, a thick ink step can trap air at its edge. Tell us where bonding happens so the ink there stays thin.
Color
Pantone and RAL references are a starting point, but ink on glass rarely matches a paper swatch exactly. We print a sample for approval and match production to it.
Specialty Prints
Beyond borders and logos, screen printing builds functional layers into the glass. Dead-front printing hides icons and displays until they light up, using semi-transparent inks set to a chosen transmission. IR-transparent black ink covers sensor windows while letting infrared through. Conductive silver lays bus bars and traces onto ITO-coated glass, and edge printing wraps ink around the glass edge to form L- and U-shaped bus bars or a finished edge color.