Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Discharge ink for screen printing

We tend to love the results of printing with discharge ink.  This waterbased method is for dark colored clothes and has been around for over thirty years. It has recently cycled back around do to re-creating the look of vintage t-shirts.  The colours typically don’t retain its vibrancy as regular plastisol printing but the feel is ultra soft and (when done properly) can last longer than the shirt itself.  Regular screen printing uses plastisol ink, which is a rubber-primarily based product. Plastisol ink lays a somewhat significant layer on prime of a shirt and normally requires multiple print layers… leaving a thick vinyl sticker-like feel on the shirt.  For example, if you're wanting to print white ink on a black shirt, that white ink would wish to be printed 2 times (print, flash, print) so as for it to appear bright and swish. Plastisol ink is great for printing inside neck size labels as a result of the ink does not bleed through to the other facet of the garment.  Screen printing discharge ink is difficult and requires a ton of expertise. Build positive you select the right screen printer!

How does discharge ink work?

Discharge printing bleaches out the original color of the garment and replaces it with the new color, or pigment.  This method solely works with one hundred percent cotton shirts that are dark. Polyester is a artificial material and will not react to discharge. There is a 12 hour shelf life to discharge ink, what ever isn't used gets trashed!

Thus, let’s say your wanting to print on a black t-shirt with white discharge ink.  Seems easy right, not extremely… You initially would like to start out with a non-active base solution, then add white pigment, and  then a little proportion of activator (aka. agent or parolite) to bring the ink to life.  The shirt itself additionally needs to be tested as all shirts can react slightly differently. This trade is understood for “over-dying”. Over-dying is when a t-shirt manufacturer runs out of black tees and needs to interchange them fast. If they need plenty of red tees in stock, they may take that inventory and dye them once more in black to fill stock. That causes huge issues with discharge ink as a result of the white pigment desired turns pink upon testing. The good t-shirt brands constantly take a look at every new batch of tees to form sure their folks overseas aren’t over-dying. Most dark colors discharge well, except, Kelly green and royal blue colored t-shirts.

The great issue is, once the task is setup and running, there's no base needed or flashing of ink, or trapping so less product is employed and production time is quicker. Discharge ink is Eco-friendly!

In order for discharge and water-primarily based ink to cure properly, we have a tendency to have a huge twenty eight foot gas dryer that pumps tons of warmth.  At least two minutes of warmth time required.

As a result of this process will be thus tedious (especially with multiple ink colors) InkMyTee.com contains a one hundred fifty piece order minimum.

Summary:

Discharge ink…

• is for dark, one hundred percent cotton tees solely

• bleaches out the dye of the tee and replaces it with the newly mixed color

• is environmentally friendly

• feels ultra soft

• resembles vintage style

• requires experience

• expires when 12 hours

Plastisol ink…

• is rubber primarily based and straightforward to figure with

• typically wants two layers of ink on dark tees

• the colors stay vibrant

• encompasses a long shelf life

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