~ Mystery of squeegee thickness ~
It happened when I was doing a print test with a customer. This question was asked to me.
"Why is the thickness of the squeegee 9 mm?"
So I gave this answer:
"9 mm is not the only squeegee thickness. 7 mm thickness also exists."
Then the customer asked,
“Why use the odd numbers of 9mm and 7mm? Is 10mm not good enough?”
For those doing screen printing, squeegee thicknesses have traditionally been 9mm and 7mm.
Even when I asked a senior employee in the company, the answer was, "It's always been 9mm."
Even when I asked a senior employee in the company, the answer was, "It's always been 9mm."
I was curious about the 9mm, and wondered what other companies' squeegees were like, so I did some research.
The survey method was to count the number of flat squeegee specifications introduced on the website of the company that sells the squeegee, and the number of cases that are introduced for thickness and width. I thought that the fact that it was introduced by many companies meant that it was a hot-selling squeegee, so I ranked it based on the total number of counts.
(For example, on our website, there are 3 types of flat squeegees 9 mm thick squeegees also have 3 types, so we count them as 3.)
The most common thickness was 9.0mm, followed by 6.0mm, 9.5mm, and 7.0mm.
The thinnest squeegee is 3.0mm, but there is also a 5.0mm squeegee. In addition, the thick squeegee was 20 mm at maximum, and the others were 15 mm and 13 mm. It seems that 7.0 mm to 9.5 mm is the most popular.
Why are 9.5mm thick squeegees available in many companies, but 10mm thick squeegees are very few? It's strange.
This survey was conducted by searching the websites of domestic companies, so I do not know the situation overseas, but it seems that 10 mm thick squeegees are not used much in Japan.
The thinnest squeegee is 3.0mm, but there is also a 5.0mm squeegee. In addition, the thick squeegee was 20 mm at maximum, and the others were 15 mm and 13 mm. It seems that 7.0 mm to 9.5 mm is the most popular.
Why are 9.5mm thick squeegees available in many companies, but 10mm thick squeegees are very few? It's strange.
This survey was conducted by searching the websites of domestic companies, so I do not know the situation overseas, but it seems that 10 mm thick squeegees are not used much in Japan.
Well, I also checked the width of the squeegee. 50mm is the most common, followed by 30mm, 40mm, 42mm, 45mm, and 52mm. There are many types of screen printers in use in the world, so it seems that a wide variety of squeegee widths is fine, but 30 mm to 50 mm seems to be the mainstream.
Next, I checked old materials to find out when the current squeegees were used.
It is said that the current screen printing began to spread around 1955. Some time later, the squeegee thicknesses introduced in the "Screen Printing Handbook" published by the Japan Screen Printing Institute in 1973 were 6.0mm, 8.0mm, and 9.0mm. Therefore, the squeegee thickness of 9.0 mm has existed since the beginning of screen printing in Japan.
After doing some research, I found a reference article on squeegee thickness.
In 1977, "Complete Works of New Screen Printing Techniques Volume 1 Basic Theory of Screen Printing" published by Serigraph. The squeegee thicknesses offered here are 1/2", 3/8" and 5/16". Converting this to mm gives 12.7mm, 9.5mm, and 7.9mm. The document also introduces the squeegee width, which is 15/8. Converting this to mm gives 47.62 mm.
Perhaps this is the origin of the current squeegee standard.When screen printing was introduced to Japan, the squeegee, which was introduced at the same time, probably became the inch standard.
The 3/8 inch thick squeegee later became a 9.0mm and 9.5mm thick squeegee, and the 5/16 inch thick squeegee became an 8.0mm and 7.0mm thick squeegee. Also, the 1/2 inch thick squeegee has become a 13 mm thick squeegee.
When it comes to the width of the squeegee, the 15/8 inch width may have become 50 mm, 45 mm, or 40 mm width due to rounding up or rounding down. It seems unreasonable to explain 42 mm width and 30 mm width in terms of 15/8 inch, but for example, if 13/8 inch is converted to mm, it is 41.27 mm, and 10/8 inch is 31.75 mm, so it may have originated around here.
When it comes to the width of the squeegee, the 15/8 inch width may have become 50 mm, 45 mm, or 40 mm width due to rounding up or rounding down. It seems unreasonable to explain 42 mm width and 30 mm width in terms of 15/8 inch, but for example, if 13/8 inch is converted to mm, it is 41.27 mm, and 10/8 inch is 31.75 mm, so it may have originated around here.
When the screen printing method was introduced to Japan, squeegees were of inch standard, and from this, various squeegees have been developed up to the present day. Since 3/8 inch has become the standard for squeegee thickness, it is thought that 9.0 mm and 9.5 mm are the most popular squeegee thicknesses today.
