[Vtec44]

I did a search but couldn't find anything so here it is. Is there a preference to which brand should a screen printer use? I did a quick search on ebay and a few other online stores and found that they're a lot of different brand and they vary in prices. Also, is there anything that I need to know, health wise, in handling pre-cured ink.

 

[Solmu]

Also, is there anything that I need to know, health wise, in handling pre-cured ink.

Don't drink the ink

More seriously, manufacturers and distributors are required to provide you with an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) which tells you how much risk the product poses, how to safely handle it, and any storage and transport requirements - it's a good starting point.

I use water-based ink so it's a little different, but googling for things like plastisol health risks should also give you some useful data. I know there's been some debate over the possibility of plastisol as a cancerous agent - some people feel it's very dangerous (if I remember correctly it contains PVC, which is considered hazardous), while others feel that there's no research that backs up that finding.

 

[Vtec44]

What are the pros/cons of water-based ink over plastisol, minus the health issue?

And no I haven't tried to drink the plastisol ink... yet! LOL

 

[Solmu]

What are the pros/cons of water-based ink over plastisol, minus the health issue?

Water-based ink dries in the screen, meaning you have to work faster and can get ugly blockages. On the other hand it touch dries, so it's less messy. It's harder to get a good opaque result with water-based - plastisol generally looks better on darks. Water-based has a very soft hand, which is desirable for some prints (and unimportant for others).

There's definitely pluses and minuses. I'm currently trying to find out the details of just what it takes to cure water-based ink, but my suspicion is that plastisol is easier in that regard.

(obviously I know you can cure water-based in a drying oven, and I know you can use an iron for X minutes, etc. - I'm not sure whether or not you can use a flash dryer to fully cure water-based as you can with plastisol though)

 

[Vtec44]

Yep, it's easier to cure plastisol ink. I found this link on Google. It's a direct comparison between plastisol vs water-based, http://www.pneac.org/sheets/screen/Plastisolvwaterbase.pdf.

 

[Solmu]

Excellent, thanks for the link. It confirmed a few things I suspected but didn't know for sure - it seems like a great introductory article to the subject.