Hi RushCreek

Welcome to the TSF!

The "best" method would be the one most readily available to you and the one you're most familiar with.

Plastisol Transfers with Nylon Adhering Powder is often most dependable.
Comparable Vinyl Trans has narrower windows of adjustment in the transfer process,
and direct screen print involves more set up criteria plus more opportunity to err.

Hope this is of help with your decision.

Happy trails!

 

Plastisol Transfers with Nylon Adhering Powder is often most dependable.

What kind of temperature would you have to heat set your inks to and still avoid burning a hole through the jacket?

 

The "best" method is screen printing with International Coatings 900 Series Nylon ink with 900 Series Catalyst. The print life will outlast the jacket.

If you don't screen print, then the heat transfer method is 2nd. choice.

Either method will involve some expertise and certain parameters to follow to get good adhesion and an even finish, free of the quilted lining seams showing through into the design.

If you've never done jackets before, expensive quilted jackets are not a good way to hone your skills.... like you said, they're expensive.

 

Jerid's mention of temperature is key to any method of decorating. Nylon likes to shrink. The only thing I've ever printed are some cheap back packs, and it was a one-color print job. Putting a jacket under a heat press under pressure with too much heat might make the fabric pucker up around the edge in the shape of the heat press, I would think. I'd be checking with the manufacturer of any heat press products for strict guidance on heat.

 

Hi again, Rushcreek

Stahl's has an example of vinyl transfer material that employs adhesives for lower melt point thresholds on nylon.
Heat Printing Nylon | Stahls' ID
The lower melt/bond temp ranges are similar for transfer adhesive inks and powders.

My thanks to all respondents on the import to properly measure and control temperature.
It should never be taken for granted.

Happy trails!

 

Having just ruined 4 $30.00 (my cost) jackets to get 2 printed correctly (happens every year around this time, as I forget how I did it last season), my advice is to go with the vinyl.

If you are screen printing, you definitely need a jacket hold down platen (expensive). After you load the jacket, you have to flash it briefly so it shrinks up -- vitally important if you are going to be doing 2 colors (that's how I ruined the first one -- didn't preheat, and it shrank when I flashed the first color). Tightly registered designs MUST be trapped (that's how I ruined the second one -- even after preheating, the first round flash shrank the fabric a little more, and the second color didn't line up properly). You have to add nylabond to your ink, and it has a shelf-life of about 8 hours, so you need to correctly estimate how much ink you'll need, because whatever's left over is going into the garbage. I flash cure the jacket because the first time I did one of these, and put it through my conveyor dryer, it came out smoking and shrivelled like a raisin. You need to make sure you get these done 3 days before the customer picks it up, so that the ink has a chance to fully cure, or it will scratch the first time he puts it on and takes a spin in his car.

Yeah -- I'm trying vinyl next time.

 

Having just ruined 4 $30.00 (my cost) jackets to get 2 printed correctly (happens every year around this time, as I forget how I did it last season), my advice is to go with the vinyl.

Read this before you try printing again next year: How to print nylon

International Coatings 900 Series is the indisputable BEST NYLON INK on the market... hands down. ALL serious Nylon printers use it. NyloBond additive for regular plastisol is not a "good" method. Yeah... it works... kinda adheres ok... just ok... it's not for expensive jackets.
We only recommend it for printing nylon bags. If you pick at it with your fingernail, it WILL come off.

With ICC's 900 series: Preheat jackets, print multicolor through 230 to 355 mesh. The ink is super SUPER opaque through fine mesh. Fine mesh = fast flash
Fast flash = less shrink
Less shrink = good registration

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to test print one jacket today. I'm using vinyl for Nylon from Stahls, so I'll let you know how it turns out. Screen printing wasn't an option, because I don't want to purchase a jacket hold down and I think there's just too much room for error. Wish me luck!

Lennea

 

Well, I decided to use Gorilla Grip 11 vinyl. I am doing 44 jackets and bought one extra to experiment on. The design is fairly large- 13"x13". For my heat press, tacking for 2 seconds (as per directions) wasn't long enough. but a 5 second tack worked like a charm. I'm halfway through the order and everything is going smoothly! Fortunately the jacket has a loooong zipper embroidery access, so I don't have to print through layers of down and quilting.

The only issue I have with the gorilla grip, is if you aren't careful when weeding, you can tear the vinyl pretty easily. Otherwise, it works great!

 

We have a contract with a watersports company for a couple of years now who give us panels to print much like the nylon flags. The panels are part of bouyancy aid jackets and throwline bags and are coated on the non printed side. We use sericols nylobag 2 part ink and catalyst range. We usually air dry these over 24hrs and stack them when touch dry and usually they adhere well when tested with fingernails and against itself. Unfortunately some panels have come back where it looks like the print has not taken some months after we sent them off after they were passed ok, and they have started to make them into items. You can almost peel some of the print off and we are trying to think why this is on this particular run and not others. Any advice or thoughts would help and if people have encountered similar things. I read somewhere that prints may lose their adhesiveness after a long time regardless of testing.

 

.... panels to print much like the nylon flags. The panels are.... coated on the non printed side. ...... print has not taken some months after we sent them off after they were passed ok, . You can almost peel some of the print off ...... I read somewhere that prints may lose their adhesiveness after a long time regardless of testing.

When nylon is coated on the back, it usually wreaks havoc with drying and adhesion. A 24 hour "dry to the touch" would not be my recommendation. I would leave them at least 48 hours. The only other option would be a "cure accelerator". You'll have to check with Sericol if they offer that. I sell one for use only with Naz Dar 2-part air dry nylon ink.

38 years in this business and I never heard of adhesion failing over time..... If the adhesion is good "today", it will be good in 10 years. "Time" only helps to further cure these types of 2-part inks.

There are a multitude of reasons why not all of the batch adhered. The finger first gets pointed at the substrate. Then check if the correct catalyst ratio was used. The ratio of mixing those types of 2-part inks should NOT be eyeballed or guessed at.

Good luck identifying the problem.