Auckland's Permark Industries produced a laundry membrane keypad for use in ticket buying machines on the Adelaide Transit system. The keypad involved two components, namely the membrane switch, which has all of the conductive circuitry on it, and an overlay.
Produced on behalf of Monitor Business Machines, Permark produced the job entirely on a single-colour machine requiring 14 passes on the overlay and five passes the membrane switch. Once it was manufactured, the membrane switch had to be tested to make sure that the circuits worked correctly and that dust and particles had not disrupted the conductive track.
Senior Screenprinting judge Ross Clarke said overlay inks were used to stop one track touching another and electricity being conducted between the two.
"The window in the keypad is a good example of a second surface printing, meaning that the substrate is textured on one side and not on the other, and the printer prints on the smooth side, so the wording can be viewed through a window from the textured side.
"The texture is taken out of one side of the window by using a UV overgloss or varnish which effectively fills in the texture and leads a smooth finish. The job also involved embossing and has been done very subtly."
Mr Clarke said an additional challenge for Permark was that as a static product the job would tend to attract dust, therefore on every pass the printer would have had to try and ensure there was no dust contamination.
The Keypad was produced on a Thieme press, using Agfa film and stock supplied by Graphic Arts, with inks supplied by Blue Print Imaging.
