Patent ID: 8230784

Claim:
A method of calibrating a squeegee blade force against a stencil in a stencil printer, the method comprising: removing a stencil from a stencil printer; removing squeegee blades of a squeegee assembly of the stencil printer, the squeegee assembly comprising a squeegee blade movement mechanism configured to move the squeegee blades from a raised position in which the squeegee blades are spaced from the stencil and a lowered position in which the squeegee blades engage and apply a force on the stencil; attaching a gauge to a bottom of a print head; moving the gauge by the squeegee blade movement mechanism to detect a first position and a second position by engaging the gauge to a surface; recording a force parameter associated with the first position and a force parameter associated with the second position; determining a calibrated position for each of the first and second force values; and calculating and applying a desired print force based upon the calibrated positions of the first and second force values and actual positions of the first and second force values as detected by the gauge with at least one squeegee blade in place.