Kobelco Research Institute Develops Thin Metal Mesh Foil for Screen Print

Kobelco Research Institute developed thin stainless steel mesh foil with many holes of tens-micro-meter diameter. This mesh foil is thinner and stronger than conventional wire meshes because of its surface flatness. The firm aims to supply the product as a mesh for screen print for surface electrode of solar battery in fiscal 2011 and, at the same time, seeks other applications such as industry filter.

It is hard to create thin holes on a metal sheet as thin as 5-30 micro meters. Kobelco Research Institute introduced etching and photo graph method to realize a new mesh foil. Conventional metal mesh for screen print is mainly made of stainless thin wires, shape of which changes by print repetitions and causes damages for print dimensions.

The new metal mesh can halve accident errors of print dimensions compared with conventional wire mesh and keep high print accuracy.