air drying or heat curing water based inks

What kind of inks and additives are you using?

hi Iam using Serigraf ink Sicotex sx
and hartner HSX
ger

The Union Aerotex inks work well. I did a wash test with a T-shirt that had a print with the catalyst and a print without it. The ink with the catalyst held up during washing. The one without the catalyst wasn't so bad. No dryer was used to cure the inks. Now let's say you want to print a white on a dark fabric. The Union Aerotex white inks are very good. They have good coverage and it's bright without the same feel you get when you print a two hit white plastisol ink. The only problem with the Aerotex white is it is not stretchable.

If you need a white print on a dark shirt then use Excalibur Water based Plastex white. You need to heat set the Plastex white though. This ink is stretchable and won't crack.

Anyway after all the testing I did you don't need to heat set the waterbased ink if you add the catalyst. Heat setting will help though but not necessary.

What about heat curing aerotex ink without a catalyst? Does anyone know the how hot and how long? Or is it like any other water based ink. Thanks

The Aerotex ink has a catalyst included. You don't need to have a heat source, but it's better to try to dry it to touch with some type of heat source then let it sit. Within 24 hours it's fully cured and washfast.

is a flash dryer a good idea to cure water base ink or a heat gun.

Reyes said:

is a flash dryer a good idea to cure water base ink or a heat gun.

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People claim to use heat guns effectively but to me it seems like sweeping a floor with a toothbrush. Personally I don't have the attention span to cure evenly with a gun.

ya i figure that lol can u recommend a flash dryer ?

I did smaller runs of my own designs and used only water based inks. Whether it was intimate apparel or t-shirts, I did not use any catalyst with my ink. Printed, air dried over night, then I heat set them the next day, packaged and mailed out. They seem to hold up to numerous washings without problems.

Rusty44 said:

Printed, air dried over night, then I heat set them the next day

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If you're going to heat setting, air drying overnight seems like an unnecessary step.

splathead said:

If you're going to heat setting, air drying overnight seems like an unnecessary step.

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You're right, but I print in smaller runs of custom designs. If I did large runs, I wouldn't take the extra time for the air drying overnight and just use the heat press. I have high durability of prints not fading by doing it this way. I'm a morning person, and look forward to finishing up projects and starting new ones then.

should i get a flash dryer?

Reyes said:

should i get a flash dryer?

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If your doing water based you really don't need a flash dryer.better off with a heat press as it will give you a full cure

Yep, flash dryer is made more for plastisol inks. Water-based inks will cure fully with a heat press. For the norm, my business work with just 5 sec of 160 deg celsius with low pressure so that you wouldn't use much strength. Good luck mate.

a cheap way to a curing device that's bigger than a heat gun is use a 1000w halogen oven as a mounted flash/curing tool it blows light and hot air down so you just aim it at the water based inks which is enough to cure all water and some plastisol i haven't tested this out but the physics should work seeing as i have set hand painted shirts with a high wattage hair-dryer before and the halogen one can be found on ebay for no money

epichouse said:

Yep, flash dryer is made more for plastisol inks. Water-based inks will cure fully with a heat press. For the norm, my business work with just 5 sec of 160 deg celsius with low pressure so that you wouldn't use much strength. Good luck mate.

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hi how long do i have to leave in heat press my ink says to heat for 2 mins?
thannks

cromwell said:

a cheap way to a curing device that's bigger than a heat gun is use a 1000w halogen oven as a mounted flash/curing tool it blows light and hot air down so you just aim it at the water based inks which is enough to cure all water and some plastisol i haven't tested this out but the physics should work

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It works. I used a heat lamp oven to cure plastisol in the 80's and I learned it from someone else who had been doing for a long time. Heat is heat.

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wormil said:

It works. I used a heat lamp oven to cure plastisol in the 80's and I learned it from someone else who had been doing for a long time. Heat is heat.

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nice one cheers looks like im getting one of those then

how long did you keep the oven over the ink that needs drying and how far from cloth to bulb?

there's a video on youtube of a adidas printing line in asia somewhere looks legit as well and there is a huge space filled with 10 rows each 100m long back to back of near vertical platens all with the same adidas t-shirt being hand printed by 2 guys and a few motorised lamps slowly moving along the rows aimed at the shirts and it looks like a halogen lamp or oven with a reflector hood so even the biggest boys in the game use this to cure
....which leads me to believe the flash curers and drying racks that the so called pros use (many of which they make and sell for ridiculous amounts) are just blagging saying you need their dryers when really a £30 1000w oven off ebay can flash and cure hmmmmmmm