Teeshirt Company

Image via Wikipedia

Screen Printing Inks and Tee Shirt Printing

Screen printing inks are moderately viscous inks which exhibit different properties when compared to other printing inks such as offset, gravure and flexographic inks though they have similar basic compositions (pigments, solvent carrier, toners, and emulsifiers). There are five different types of screen ink to include solvent, water, and solvent plastisol, water plastisol, and UV curable.

UV Curable

UV curable inks consist of liquid prepolymers, monomers, and initiators which upon being exposed to large doses of U.V. Radiation instantly polymerize the vehicle to a dry, tough thermosetting resin. They also require less energy, overall, to dry or “cure” compared to gas or electric driers.

The down side of UV inks is they can cost as much as three times that of regular inks and must be handled differently than conventional inks due to safety issues. Additionally, solvents are required for clean-up which results in some VOC emissions.

Plastisol Inks

Plastisol inks (both solvent and water based) are used in textile screen printing. Plastisol inks are widely used in garment printing. They are easy to print, do not dry in the screen, can be very opaque on dark garments, and will adhere to most textiles. They are composed primarily of two ingredients, PVC resin (a white powder) and plasticizer (a thick, clear liquid). Plastisol inks have one outstanding characteristic, they must be heated to dry. They will not dry, or cure, at normal temperatures. For a complete cure, they must reach 290-330º F (143-166º C).

Plastisol inks can be printed on virtually any surface that can withstand the heat required to cure the ink and is porous enough to permit good ink penetration. Plastisol inks do not color the fibers like a dye. Instead the ink wraps around the fibers and makes a mechanical bond with the fabric. For this reason, they will not adhere to non-porous substrates such as plastic, metal, and glass. They also will not adhere well to woven, waterproofed nylon material without adding a bonding agent. [1]

Solvent Inks & Water Inks

Solvent and water based screen printing inks are formulated with primarily solvent or water. The solvent evaporates and results in VOC emissions. Water based inks, though they contain significantly less, may still emit VOC’s from small amounts of solvent and other additives blended into the ink. The liquid waste material may also be considered hazardous waste.[2]

Custom shirt printing offers a variety of inks, foil, and colors. Call 435-623-2382 for more information.

Related articles

• T-Shirt Screen Printing Process (customshirtprinting.net)
• What Is Screen Printing (customshirtprinting.net)

_{»crosslinked«}