I am interested in doing more discharge ink work. Mainly as an underbase for certain designs. My question is this: I have heard that a 195-230 mesh is the highest you can go with discharge inks to get decent results. Because of the nature of the ink, anything higher will not lay down enough ink (and therefore enough discharge agent) to sufficiently take the dye out of the shirt. Does anyone have any info on this? I don't want to be limited with designs if I can only use lower mesh screens. There are many designs that require 305 to get the detail, and could be printed with better efficiency with the discharge inks, if possible. I hope this makes sense....? Thanks for your help.
i've used union plasticharge on 305's once before, works pretty good as long as you work quick and keep the screen flooded.
i'd like to do some more higher mesh count discharge experiments to see how little you can lay down and still get a good discharge, especially with more solid area type designs. i only have a 5' dryer, so less is more!!
I have seen companies run a 200-230 mesh for discharge but I don't personally recommend it. One thing you can try is a thinner diameter of mesh. A mesh with a smaller thread diameter will give you a more open area yet keep the same detail. I know Murakami sells a "S" type thread and a 150-S mesh has the printing characteristics of a 110 regular.
Good luck, post back your results!!!
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If you use a better quality discharge ink, you can use 260 and 305 mesh without problems for detail work. Try Sericol TC Texcharge discharge ink. 800-SERICOL
Are you still able to get good discharge results with a 5 foot dryer? Does it have forced air or do you have to run the belt really slow?
it depends on the size of the print. if it's just 4x12 or so, one pass down the dryer works, if it's larger I have to run it twice. If it's a multicolor job, i'll pace myself on the press so that shirts are flashing a long time while i'm loading/unloading shirts so the discharging is well underway before it goes down the dryer. the belt is slowed all the way down, but it won't slow as much as my old 11' harco, it will nearly slow to a creep. if i had more power in the garage, i'd use it. that's in the works , though.
mesh count for discharge inks 
Re: mesh count for discharge inks 
