Assembly Line

Printing

Ink, or a pattern of some other material, is transferred accurately onto a surface, often thousands of sheets an hour.

46 lines that use it

Aluminum can 6 stations · 17 raw sources Banknote 6 stations · 20 raw sources Board game 6 stations · 18 raw sources Book 6 stations · 19 raw sources Bowling ball 8 stations · 23 raw sources Camera sensor 6 stations · 15 raw sources Candy-coated chocolate 10 stations · 20 raw sources Cardboard box 5 stations · 17 raw sources Compact disc 6 stations · 20 raw sources Computer keyboard 6 stations · 25 raw sources Credit card 7 stations · 23 raw sources Dartboard 7 stations · 22 raw sources Desk globe 6 stations · 15 raw sources Flag 6 stations · 21 raw sources Flip-flops 6 stations · 15 raw sources Flying disc 7 stations · 15 raw sources Golf ball 8 stations · 21 raw sources Graphics card 7 stations · 26 raw sources Jigsaw puzzle 7 stations · 18 raw sources Laminate flooring 6 stations · 19 raw sources LCD screen 6 stations · 19 raw sources Newspaper 6 stations · 19 raw sources Paper cup 7 stations · 18 raw sources Pizza box 5 stations · 18 raw sources Plastic bag 6 stations · 17 raw sources Playing cards 6 stations · 18 raw sources Porcelain 6 stations · 11 raw sources Power cable 9 stations · 10 raw sources Printed circuit board 8 stations · 18 raw sources Rubik's Cube 7 stations · 21 raw sources Skateboard 8 stations · 22 raw sources Ski 8 stations · 24 raw sources Smartwatch 9 stations · 31 raw sources Snowboard 10 stations · 23 raw sources Soccer ball 7 stations · 17 raw sources Solar cell 5 stations · 15 raw sources Solid-state drive 6 stations · 22 raw sources Stained glass 10 stations · 24 raw sources Sticky notes 7 stations · 18 raw sources Syringe 7 stations · 23 raw sources T-shirt 6 stations · 17 raw sources Trading cards 6 stations · 17 raw sources Umbrella 8 stations · 19 raw sources Underwear 9 stations · 17 raw sources Wallpaper 7 stations · 22 raw sources Windshield 8 stations · 20 raw sources

What it looks like on the line

  • FlagPrint or dye the design. The design is printed onto the cloth with dyes, or screens lay down each color in turn. A through-and-through print soaks the dye in so the reverse side is a mirror image. Premium American flags skip the printing: machines embroider each star and the stripes are sewn from dyed strips.
  • Playing cardsPrint both faces. Plates carry the artwork, and each side of the pasteboard is printed. Registration must be exact, because a card whose back is off-center can give away its value.
  • UmbrellaPrint the flat panels. Designs go on before sewing, by screen printing for simple logos and digital printing for complex art.
  • Golf ballPrint the logo. Brand names and numbers are pad-printed on and sealed.
  • WallpaperPrint color by color. In rotary printing, mesh-covered tubes feed ink through the stencil onto the moving paper. Each tube lays down one color.
  • Rubik's CubeAdd the color. Each face gets its color from a sticker or a colored plastic tile. Modern cubes use a fixed layout, with white opposite yellow, blue opposite green and orange opposite red.
  • SkateboardPrint the graphic. Art goes on the underside, and the top gets a coat of finish. Rough grip tape covers the riding surface.
  • Credit cardPrint the core sheets. Thin PVC core sheets, often split into two layers about .013 inches thick, run through offset or screen presses. Cyan, magenta, yellow and black combine into the image, and fiducial marks are printed for later alignment. Digital printing handles short runs.
  • Bowling ballEngrave the logo. A machine rotates the ball while it engraves up to five points. Workers fill the engraved lines with paint so the logo stands out.
  • BanknotePrint the layers. Large sheets pass through several presses, each laying down a layer of the design. Engraved-plate printing, called intaglio, is the traditional method.
  • T-shirtScreen-print the design. In screen printing, each color is pushed through its own mesh screen, partly coated with emulsion to block the non-image area. Ink sits on top of the fabric until a dryer cures it.
  • NewspaperOffset onto the web. The inked image is pressed onto a rubber blanket, and the blanket prints on the paper. Two blankets squeeze the web between them to print both sides at once, and the soft rubber hugs the rough paper surface.