Discuss the different plastisol screen printing inks and curing methods on the market. Share tips on getting the best results with the different ink manufacturers.
Hey everyone, I have a bit of a problem, and I need to know where I'm going wrong. I'm trying to print a black discharge on a white shirt, fairly simple correct? Well I go through the proper steps, I took the amount of discharge base I needed, added 8-10% of the activation agent mixed it together and let it set for about 10-15 minutes, then based on that weight around 8% of pigment. I printed the shirt (100% cotton), discharged it, set it, and it was a nice rich dark black. So I threw it through the wash, dried it, and when it came out, the black now looked washed out, more like a dark gray. Any idea's? Do I need to possible add more pigment or something?
Well that still doesn't explain why it's happening on a darker teal shirt as well, so saying, "Don't use it on white," isn't a solution at all.
Also I'm using a heat gun, which goes between 750 degree and 1000 degree's Farenheit. I use a smooth, slow circular motion, to where you can tell the ink has dried. I know when I'm done because it goes from a shiny black to a semi-matte black.
You don't need to activate the black ink on white. It washes out because it is not cured. We use a 28' gas dryer with a 16' chamber and run them through the dryer twice at a slower belt speed than normal speed to properly cure the ink. I would get with the tech department from your ink company to discuss curing issues you are having.
You don't need to mix black with discharge agent for any color shirt. You just print black. It sounds like the ink didn't cure completely. The ink needs to reach 320 degrees for 1.5 minutes.
Why would you start a thread asking for advice, if you aren't willing to take it? If the print looks fine before you wash it then it doesn't after a wash, apparently your ink is not curing.
Why would you start a thread asking for advice, if you aren't willing to take it? If the print looks fine before you wash it then it doesn't after a wash, apparently your ink is not curing.
I'm more than willing to take advice, and it not curing makes sense. But someone saying, "Don't use discharge ink on a white shirt," or "Don't use black discharge, just print black," I'm obviously using a black discharge for the soft hand, I ordered a water-based enviroline soft hand black ink, which I'm going to try. If it's not curing then that's my solution, not "Don't use black discharge."
I simply meant that no matter how long you hold itthere your not going to cure discharge with a heat gun.
Try not adding the activator to the waterbase. It's not doing anything.
I have had the same issue in military green gildan 2000's. It turned out it wasn't cured. I have a 48" raypaul gas dryer with 12 feet of curing and we had to run them through 2 times. We ended up reprinting the job using chino black. It's a waterbase/plastisol hybrid made by Rutland.
Your always going to have some level of fading with waterbase. Especially if your using a beefy t
I simply meant that no matter how long you hold itthere your not going to cure discharge with a heat gun.
Try not adding the activator to the waterbase. It's not doing anything.
I have had the same issue in military green gildan 2000's. It turned out it wasn't cured. I have a 48" raypaul gas dryer with 12 feet of curing and we had to run them through 2 times. We ended up reprinting the job using chino black. It's a waterbase/plastisol hybrid made by Rutland.
Your always going to have some level of fading with waterbase. Especially if your using a beefy t
Well for this run I'm switching to an Enviroline Softhand Black for the white shirt, unfortunately I do this all out of my home and I'm on a rather bleak budget at the moment, so what is my best option for curing the Enviroline waterbased ink best?
And thank you for your guys help, sorry if I came off stubborn in taking your advice but I simply wanted a solution to the problem at hand, but I guess the solution is to simply avoid it and use a different method.
Waterbase doesnt cure it the traditional method of plastisol inks. When you "cure" waterbase inks you are essentially removing all the moisture, thus the reason it is practically impossible to do with a heat gun. As techs said he was using a large dryer and still had to run them twice. Then as far as using black discharge on white everyone els is correct discharge removes the color the garment was dyed originally no need to use on white. I know you said you are on a tight budget I would suggest doing as much research as possible to will save you alot of time and money in the end.
A problem with Discharge Ink 
