As some of you may recall, I suffered a house fire over a year ago. We are currently at the "choosing tile for the bathrooms" stage of the restoration process. Wow. The variety of printed ceramic tiles has completely blown me away. You may have thought about how to print your own designs onto the tiles like ceramic. This prompted me to search online, and what I discovered has made me doubt that printing will ever completely disappear.
The Method Used to Print Tiles for Centuries
According to my research, screen printing appears to have been the preferred technique. That makes sense because this method can inexpensively print a large number of tiles. There were two types of screen printing used: rotary and flatbed. To clarify, flatbed screen printing uses several stretched screens with obliterated design (or left clear). The press operator pushes ink through the open mesh by squeezing a rubber squeegee across the inked screen. No ink passes through areas of the screen that have been blocked (via a physically applied or photographed blockout). Although the screens of a rotary screen press are cylindrical, the operation is similar. The color-specific squeegees nevertheless push ink past the screen mesh (but not through the blocked-out images).
The initial cost of setting up a screen printer for ceramic printing is high, but the unit cost falls as you print thousands of duplicate ceramic tiles. According to what I've read, the tiles are initially created but not fired or glazed. They are currently just squares that have had any surface texture pushed into them. Then, using pigments (often a mineral of some kind), screen printing adds the decoration (patterns) while tolerating the intense heat (up to 1600 degrees Celsius) of the firing kiln. Screen printing is used, and glazes are added before firing (again, glazing materials that will tolerate the high heat of the kiln). Screen printing adds patterning, glazes produce a sort of glass coating to guard against moisture and bacteria, and fire fortifies the clay and makes the tiles durable. This is the method of screen printing, glazing, and firing. It used to be the preferred method, but digital printing is increasingly overtaking it. Printing Ceramic Tiles Digitally The risk of breaking exists while screen printing the "biscuits," which are unfired, premade ceramic tiles with any rough patterning already pressed into them. In order to drive ink through the screen mesh, screen printing requires both touching the unfired clay and applying at least some pressure. Digital inkjet printing, in comparison, leaves the tile biscuits alone. Instead, it briefly sprays ink onto them, which reduces breaking.
Additionally, the variety of tile designs produced by screen printing is somewhat constrained. If we did it differently, we would need a lot more screens with various tile patterns. As opposed to this, digital inkjet printing can produce a nearly infinite variety of unique patterns on the tiles, so your bathroom may not have many or any repetitive patterns. Additionally, printing smaller, customized runs are becoming more popular throughout industries, including ceramic tile printing. In order to make screen printing economically viable, you must manufacture thousands of tiles, but digital inkjet printing allows you to print one tile, 100 tiles, etc. As opposed to an analog technique like screen printing, inkjet setup expenses are low, so you don't have to worry about storage and inventory. As a result, inkjet printing is starting to dominate the ceramic tile market. According to what I've read, the greatest difficulties in putting this digital printing technology involve finding pigment particles that are both large enough to be useful (lightfast and able to withstand the heat of the kiln) and small enough to sit in a chemical suspension and pass through the inkjet printheads onto the clay biscuit substrate. Significant challenges to overcome include pigment particles settling to the bottom of the liquid inkjet printing mixture and clogged printheads. I've Seen Some SamplesThe different ceramic tile samples that I've seen my fiancee bring back to the condo for consideration intrigue me.
I just examined one of them under the loupe on my printer, and what appeared to be marble, granite, or some other type of natural substance, was actually just a collection of inkjet dots. When viewed closely, it is interesting. I initially see a ceramic base that appears to be about 1/4" thick when I glance at the side of the tile. Then there is a thin layer that resembles paper but is actually a chemical ground that is used as a foundation for the inkjet pigments (much as you would prime the canvas with gesso). Additionally, there are inkjet dots that seem to extend all the way to the tile edges. After that, there is some coating, probably for longevity. I know from reading that these inkjet-printed tiles are frequently made so that the ornamentation is more than just a surface coating applied to a ceramic tile that has previously been fired. Instead, it is a step in the process that also involves kiln fire (and therefore uses mineral-based pigments). Furthermore, it appears that going about tile production in this way also decreases fading from exposure to sunshine and wear and tear on the tile decoration (after all, if you're utilizing these tiles in a commercial environment, you can have a lot of foot traffic). Even stating that their method is not a sublimation process, one website specializes in printing tiles. In other words, this website implied that the business's inkjet procedure produced "genuine tiles" with all the tensile strength and colorfastness of conventional screen-printed tiles. Additionally, the business has the option of printing one or more tiles. Some Interesting Examples That Are Far From ConventionalThe items themselves intrigued me more than the odd blending of ceramics and printing or the seemingly endless potential of industrial inkjet printing.
At the numerous tile stores, my fiancée and I have visited recently for the house rebuild, I have seen everything from actual stone (quartz, marble, and travertine) to inkjet-printed replicas of the same. In reality, I've learned to start by scanning the tile's side. All-pervasive patterns can be seen in natural objects. Inkjet tiles appear to have a surface ink deposit on a blank tile. The items, however, might be virtually indistinguishable from one another when compared side by side. And there is no problem with product durability. Beyond the conventional appearance, there are some fairly peculiar simulations, such as inkjet simulations of stone, ceramic, and wood on tiles. There are even reproductions of commercial carpets on ceramic tiles that replicate the rug's texture. Even when you touch something, you truly have no idea what you're looking at. The secret is that practically anything can be produced using inkjet and other digital technologies to appear like something else. And the kinks are still being worked out. The goods are sturdy and have a nice appearanceIn my opinion, this proves that print is still alive. It is catching on in industrial settings like wildfire.