Enhancing Display Durability and Style with Cost Effective Solutions

Adding a Splash of Colour with Innovative Printing Techniques

In today's fast-paced display technology world, industrial machine designers strive to enhance user experiences through aesthetic design and simple usability while maintaining competitive costs. This balance is crucial for mid-entry-level products, where a simple display is sufficient to convey essential information, enabling users to determine the machine's status and be able to operate it safely.

The Challenge of High-End Displays

Advancements in full-colour TFT and AMOLED displays offer a plethora of vibrant options. However, these can be overkill for applications requiring minimal display information, leaving many potential features redundant. There is also the danger of pricing your product out of its target market space as the price jump from a basic monochrome display to full colour, will inevitably weigh heavily on the cost of the final BOM.

How can we improve the aesthetics of a monochrome LCD display without compromising the competitive appeal of the final product?

Silkscreen Printing

Monochrome Vertical Alignment displays, with their deep black backgrounds and bright white digits, really make the display pop. 

Add some eye-catching icons and apply a bit of colour to those display patterns and you’ve transformed a black & white mono display into a one that displays vibrant colours.

This is achieved by applying coloured ink to specific areas of ITO glass that correspond to icons or symbols with a silk-screening process. Ink passes through a mesh while a stencil blocks unwanted areas.

silkscreen printing technique for monochrome displays

Although multiple colours can be printed, only one can be applied at a time, requiring several silk screens and stencils, which need to be meticulously aligned to the print target area. The process can be slow and labour intensive, especially when trying to apply colour gradients and shading.

But there is a new way of achieving spectacular looking colour gradient effects…


UV Printing

UV printing is a digital technique using UV curing inks, which dry instantly under UV light, unlike conventional printing where ink is left to dry naturally. 

Just like digital printing, this method excels in producing high-resolution prints (up to 1200 dpi) with an extensive colour gamut, producing sharp, colourful images and seamless colour gradient effects, surpassing silkscreen printing capabilities.


Benefits of UV Printing

  • Time Efficiency:
    UV printing reduces setup time, as there is no need for mesh or stencils, allowing for quick design uploads and print changes. Ideal for tight deadlines or frequent iterations.
  • Versatility:
    It can be applied to various materials, including glass, making it perfect for control panels with capacitive switches where no display is needed, for example on a vending machine where a user can view and select their choice from accurate product images.
  • Hidden Until Lit Technique:
    This innovative approach involves printing images that remain invisible under normal light but become vividly illuminated when backlit; combined with special optical inks, this effect becomes even more striking using the precision and accuracy of UV printing techniques.
UV printing on glass used with touch switches
  • Aesthetic Appeal and Customisation: 
    Creating hidden graphics that come to life with backlighting opens new design customisation possibilities, ideal for limited edition devices or niche markets. This technique allows high levels of personalisation, creating intuitive, interactive user interfaces that enhance the user experience.

Why Choose UV Printing?

UV printing offers superior resolution, colour versatility, efficiency, and flexibility, making it an excellent choice for innovative designs. The hidden until lit effect adds aesthetic appeal and customisation potential, perfect for engaging user interfaces.

Contact Us to learn how our expertise can help you achieve optimal solutions for your next project and elevate your user experience to the next level.