At Commercial Screen, customers know they'll find the products most in demand in today's world of textile image application. For example, Spectrachem makes water-based screen printing inks that are dispersions of pigment used for textile screen printing. RFU, or ready-for-use textile screen printing dispersion, is a premixed medium preferred by many textile printers and appreciated for its performance. Impressing images and text on T-shirts is an industry that is international; coatings made by the manufacturers whose products we carry are sold around the globe, appreciated by millions of graphic artists, printers, and T-shirt wearers alike. That is why we stay abreast of what works, what's new, and what our customers want.
In addition to product availability at Commercial Screen, you can count on getting all of the information you need to get the results you desire. Take plastisol inks, for example. Made of two ingredients, plasticizer and PVC resin, these are used widely in printing garments because they provide reliable adherence and printing results, don't dry on the screen, and offer a desired opacity when applied to dark textiles. Textile screen printing, in fact, wouldn't be the same without plastisol screen printing ink. Use of this medium requires heat processing because plastisol ink does not cure unless it's heated to a temperature of between 290 and 330 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that whatever the ink is used on must be able to withstand that amount of heat application. Mesh is a consideration too. Various inks require different degrees of density. For example, 125 threads per square inch of mesh density is necessary for optimal results when printing on darker fabrics.
One issue when printers apply plasticized inks to polyester fibers is dye migration. It means exactly what one might think: plastisol ink coloring is compromised when dye in some polyester fabrics transfers into it after it's been cured (it can take up to two weeks for migration to occur). How can this be avoided? A number of strategies can help. First, if you can use 100% cotton fabrics, you avoid the issue altogether. Flash curing with a white under-base known for minimal bleeding first, and then applying the final inking is another approach. You can also use as little heat as possible during the curing process. And finally, take advantage of high quality international coatings known for their high opacity and minimal bleeding.