I want to know if you can print any design (spot colors) with water based ink, or is there any limitations compare to plastisol ?
In fact I wonder if I run a business if I have to print water based only, or if I have to do both. (plastisol + water based ink)
Thks
Ijust recently printed w/plastisol for the first time and what a pleasure it was .
I love wb. but it is a pain in the ... I will print wb for some jobs .. but only some jobs
Yes, you can print about anything with WB inks. It just may be a little more difficult and include an extra screen.
On dark colored shirts, you may have to discharge the color before laying down the inks.
Here's the big question, why are you interested in printing with WB inks?
Hi,
I want to use WB ink for environmental issue, as there is less hazardous chemicals involved. (based on what I read on this forum...)
Maybe I am wrong...
Thks
Last edited by jgabby; July 5th, 2007 at 01:04 PM.
im into WB inks as well
it's because i think and read here that plastisols got a lot of chemicals that goes along with it.
with WB, all you need is water - that's not harmful compared to chemicals.
i wonder why other printers prefer plastisols?
can anyone give a brief comparison about those two inks???
__________________ i can live with nothing on but a shirt
Most plastisols are cheaper than WB, can remain open to air, are generally odor free, and have been the standard for a long time now. I prefer plastisols because we've done it for so long and have a good system. The prep time for screens is minimal. There CAN be more chemicals involved but only if you choose to have them. I operate with only Franmar products and I use 3 chemicals total (on-press ink wash / stencil + ink remover combo / dehaze). With WB you still have the screen reclaim process so that would put me down to only 2 chemicals, not a huge jump.
I can stop in the middle of a run if necessary and come back to it as well with plastisol.
Water Based inks will eat through most standard emulsion so you need an extra diazo agent which shortens the shelf life of most emulsions and takes a little extra time. On top of that you must re-expose or harden the emulsion prior to printing (not really a big deal there but it is specific and must be done or else you'll have a mess on your hands). You also have to coat screens the opposite of how you would for plastisol. You want to build a decent micron level on the squeegee side vs. the print side (or so the Murakami rep explained to me)
My main drawback with WB is that on long runs (5000+) I have to pull the screens from time to time and wash them out with water again because the ink has slowly dried in the screen. (speaking of which, is that normal?)You can't run fans in the area because it will speed up the drying process
The benefits though are that you can get a substantially softer hand with water-based inks than you can with plastisol. You CAN use additives like curable reducer and soft-hand extender to plastisol and acheive a soft hand but for a true soft hand print WB is the way to go.
I personally feel that a discharge underbase w/ reduced plastisol through 220+ mesh is cheaper and easier than doing all out water based and acheives the same desired effects.
The main draw to Water Based printing is that there's a huge growing market for it and there is an added value to the final product so the margins on it can be slightly higher than doing plastisol.
It is a little more work and more information that you must keep stored in your head.
Monstermerch: thanks for sharing info - good stuff. One question (appropriate thread jacking )
You said
Quote:
I personally feel that a discharge underbase w/ reduced plastisol through 220+ mesh is cheaper and easier than doing all out water based and acheives the same desired effects.
Why the discharge underbase? and do you do this type of underbase for all colored shirts? or just for the darks.....
because of environmental concerns, I also wanted to use waterbased inks but my printer told me that, although they initially quoted me for it, they later said it wouldnt work even nearly as well as plastisols and would hardly come out on dark garments at all. I was really disappointed as I had always wanted to use WB inks. On reading this thread, am I right to be a little suspicious?
Yeah, waterbased inks have changed A LOT in the last couple of years. There is now a line of inks that does allow printing directly on darks, without discharging. Of course there is a hand, but it's way softer than plastisols on darks. And much nicer to use than discharge.
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Phillip, out of curiosity, with the higher opacity waterbased inks you mention, do you print-flash-print as with plastisols to gain opacity? Does it leave a matte finish on the ink (unlike the glossy look plastisols tend to give)? And do you mind sharing the name of the manufacturer? I'd like to give waterbased on darks a try. My biggest complaint with plastisols is trying to eliminate the glossy look when printing on darks due to the amount of ink you have to put down, even through finer meshes.
Water based ink - Can u print any design ? 
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