Discharge ink

It usually lasts for 48 hours after the discharge agent is mixed in. You can put it in the fridge to extend the shelf life a few days.

Discharge is a base that is mixed with pigments, and 10% discharge powder.

It should not be lumpy, but is usually a bit gritty from the powder. DTG ink is inkjet printer ink, so no.

I use Matsui for waterbased, and Union plasticharge for plastisol.

One of the members has a good discharge blog- Discharge Nation - discharge screen printing blog

i've had good results by keeping matsui white discharge in the fridge up to 15 days and adding another 2% powder to power it back up and saw no difference in prints. hate to toss that stuff, kinda pricey. i try to line up discharge jobs so i can move ink from job to job. stan

is there alot of different color that can be discharge? i know there is white , but can you get blue , red etc?

Discharge is a 2 part ink which includes the discharge base and the activator. You mix the activator into the discharge by weight up to 5-8%.

We suggest a shelf life of 8-10 hours after mixing in the activator. There can be a shorter shelf life if you are using "weak" pigments mixed into the base to add color.

When mixed properly the ink has a smooth consistency without any lumps.

Good luck,
---Jantex Inks

All discharge inks are different.

Make sure to contact the ink manufacturer to find out what the mixing parameters are.

Wilflex has a waterbased line called Wilflex Oasis. The Discharge inks are a two part system. A base and an activator. You mix the activator in at 6% by weight. You can also add Wilflex Oasis Pigment Concentrates into the system. You add these before activation at 8% by weight and then you activate that total weight at the 6% by weight.

Wilflex also gives a pot life of 4 to 6 hours and we do not recommend storing in the refrigerator or adding more activator to the system to add pot life.

I hope that helps!

Erin

Mastui discharge is phthalate free. This new formula allows you to mix in less agent (2-5% instead of 8-10%). This can help to lengthen the shelf life, reduce some screen clogging issues and reduce the smell of the ink.

Just a little food for thought.

In general waterbased/discharge inks are phthalate free.

You may be referring to formaldehyde. Discharge inks generally contain formaldehyde, however, there are some non-formaldehyde versions available.

Thanks,

Erin

ErinAllen said:

In general waterbased/discharge inks are phthalate free.

You may be referring to formaldehyde. Discharge inks generally contain formaldehyde, however, there are some non-formaldehyde versions available.

Thanks,

Erin

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Actually there are many discharge inks that are NOT phthalate free. Most Plasti-charge, for example, contain phthalates.

Yes, there are some non-formaldehyde discharge inks available but many times they contain other chemicals that are far worse for us and the environment than the standard discharge inks.

Matsui's discharge inks contained some phthalates until a little over a year ago. I believe that many other brands of discharge ink either still contain phthalates or are just now getting rid of them.

Hi Erin,

Thank you for your kind response. Sorry if my message sounded argumentative. After re-reading it, I can see how it could sound that way but that was never my intention.

I do understand that no water based inks contain phthalates. But I also have learned that there are many types of phthalates out there. Some of these phthalates are not banned by state and federal regulations but many are.

From what I've been told, many water based discharge inks either do contain or did contain phthalates.

But hey, I'm no chemist! Just a distributor trying to understand and help others!

At first sorry of my english if some where will be a maistake.
Regarding phatalates, they can be found not only in plastisols, butalso in water based inks (especially in opaques). Difference are only in detected quantities.
Regarding formaldehyde, almost all discharge systems are zync formaldehyde sulfoxilat (as activator) based, so all of them contain formaldehyde in final garment and all of them must be washed before wearing. As I know there is only one, patented dischare system (based on thiourea dioxyde as activator) which are formaldehyde free.

SO, I use matsui discharge inks with great success. My tech guy and sales rep at Jessup told me I could keep the activated-pigmented discharge in the fridge for about two weeks. Being a frugal printer, I am pushing it, and doing some tests with activated discharge in the fridge for well over two-weeks and having pretty good results. My question is this: is the main concern with the shelf life that the discharge will not fully activate on the garment after a certain period of time, or that it will be inconsistent? ei, if i run a test and run it through the dryer, and it looks good has the discharge worked, or is there still an issue of washfastness?

Okay, so I did further testing today, and might have gotten a little carried away with my discharge activating on the garment after "well over two-weeks." It is definitely less consistent, not fully discharging, it could be used for a certain effect, but wouldn't pass for most custom orders.

Hi, Can Some one tell me, what are the banned chemicals for Italy along with there maximum acceptance level.
Like Free Formaldehyde = Upto what parameters this is acceptable in Italy ??

An update on my previous post: "might have gotten a little carried away with my discharge activating on the garment after "well over two-weeks."" Well, I kept that same ink in a fridge and tested it again last week, almost three months after mixing it and it worked better than it did when I reported on my last post. It consistently and completely discharged and pigmented a bright lime green. Go figure.

ErinAllen said:

All discharge inks are different.

Make sure to contact the ink manufacturer to find out what the mixing parameters are.

Wilflex has a waterbased line called Wilflex Oasis. The Discharge inks are a two part system. A base and an activator. You mix the activator in at 6% by weight. You can also add Wilflex Oasis Pigment Concentrates into the system. You add these before activation at 8% by weight and then you activate that total weight at the 6% by weight.

Wilflex also gives a pot life of 4 to 6 hours and we do not recommend storing in the refrigerator or adding more activator to the system to add pot life.

I hope that helps!

Erin

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Wouldn't that really make it a three part system?

printing40years said:

Wouldn't that really make it a three part system?

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Yea, with the color pigments it's a 3 part system but it also can be printed without pigment to get the natural color of the garment. For this you only need to the 2 parts (base and activator)

Dear Friend,

saw you massage dt 24.02.2010 reg discharge ink

Some of my friends told me that when using normal discharge ink system, it has some formaldehyde on fabric after printing/curing. after washing the fabric the formaldehyde % will do down. but if we pack the same fabric after washing and open after 2-3 months the formaldehyde % will be high. is it true? what is the solution for this.

jittutodi11 said:

Dear Friend,

saw you massage dt 24.02.2010 reg discharge ink

Some of my friends told me that when using normal discharge ink system, it has some formaldehyde on fabric after printing/curing. after washing the fabric the formaldehyde % will do down. but if we pack the same fabric after washing and open after 2-3 months the formaldehyde % will be high. is it true? what is the solution for this.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is essentially true. If you printed and cured the garments using discharge ink and then packaged the garments right away the % of formaldehyde would not be any higher than when the garments were printed but the it would get trapped into the garments until they are washed.

Washing is the best way to dissipate the formaldehyde from the garments. You also need to understand that if you are using the right discharge ink, you will use such a small amount of discharge agent that the % of formaldehyde in the garment is extremely small.

Use Matsui's discharge inks because these use less dicsharge agent than most other brands. You can get away with 2.5% - 3% discharge agent which will greatly reduce the percentage of formaldehyde in the ink. And wash the garments before you package them away if you want to lower the % to almost nothing.