Selecting suitable squeegees

Squeegee Hardness

If you are printing on rough-textured surfaces with an open design without much detail and need to get plenty of ink deposit coverage between threads and fibres, you’ll need a soft squeegee that can flex easily into the valley crevices and deposit the required amount of ink.

However, if you are screen printing onto a 100% cotton t-shirt and the design is a detailed company logo or a corflute real estate sign, then a medium Shore squeegee will do the trick. It will be flexible enough, but also offer the correct stiffness to give an even deposit of ink. In most cases, you'll find that a medium Shore hardness squeegee will be a good all-rounder for most jobs.

A hard squeegee will push through a smaller deposit of ink and ensure any fine details of the image print clearly. If you are printing onto hard surfaces, there's no absorption, therefore a thinner deposit of ink is best, not only for a sharp clear image but also to save on ink consumption. Remember, the more prints per litre of ink—the better for your business.

Squeegee manufacturers generally colour code their different squeegees according to Shore hardness.

Example below: 

• Red: Soft 60-65 Shore
• Green: Medium 70-75 Shore
• Blue: Hard 80-85 Shore

Squeegee quality

A sharp imperfection free squeegee edge with allow a controlled ink deposit to flow through the mesh and stencil onto the material to give a sharp clean image.

A rounded, worn, or blunt-edge squeegee, generally pushes more ink through the mesh, causing smudges from too much ink being deposited.

Care and storage

Careless storage and handling of squeegees can result in 'nicks' and rough edges along the lead edge, which can then result in your prints having streaks. A damaged squeegee can also result in smearing and irregular ink deposits.

Have a designated area for storage, like a shadow board, highly visible making for easy selection when starting a new run is beneficial.

Squeegees should always be cleaned well after each use, leaving any inks on them, especially solvent-based inks, will cause premature ageing. Keep in mind that squeegees absorb solvent and swell, but left overnight the solvent will disburse and the squeegee swelling will abate.

Lastly, always remember that if you have any questions about squeegee selection and care, or any other query relating to screen printing, you can reach out to the team here via: help@gjs.co