Rotary screen printing accounts for more than 60 percent of automated cotton printing. The machines can print up to 3,500 yards an hour. The cloth moves continuously under perforated cylinders, through which a metal roller forces color paste.
Engraved roller machines have a padded cylinder surrounded by copper rollers with a dye trough. Each roller prints one color in the design as the cloth moves between the cylinder and rollers in sequence, followed by a drying process. The cloth is printed at 50 to 100 yards a minute.
In screen printing, one mesh screen with a coat of dye is used to print each color while the areas not to be dyed are covered with a resistant coating. The cloth is moved from screen to screen as a roller presses the dye through the mesh. This method prints up to 1,200 yards an hour.