What is a stencil?

What is a stencil?
Stencils, also known as SMT Stencil, is a special mold for SMT. Its main function is to aid in the deposition of solder paste; the purpose is to transfer the exact amount of solder paste to the exact location on the empty PCB.
The manufacturing process of SMT steel mesh can be divided into a laser template, electropolishing template, electroforming template, step template, bonding template, nickel plating template, and etching template.
The production process of the stencil includes chemical etching, laser cutting, and electroform.
MARK point: an optical positioning point designed for accurate alignment between the steel mesh and PCB during printing