Printing on Nylon Bags

[screenxpress]

Okay, I know I will need an Athletic Ink from someone and something called Nylabond as an additive.

Since I am set up just to print shirts, how the heck do you print nylon bags?  I run with a 1/8 off contact, but the bags are gonna be in the way, not to mention loosey goosey.

The bags are going to be supplied.  How hard are they to print on?

TIA

[Frog]

Okay, I know I will need an Athletic Ink from someone and something called Nylabond as an additive.

Since I am set up just to print shirts, how the heck do you print nylon bags?  I run with a 1/8 off contact, but the bags are gonna be in the way, not to mention loosey goosey.

The bags are going to be supplied.  How hard are they to print on?

TIA

Let's see what I can get type before dinner is ready.


First, you can add the Nylobond (Union's product) of other similar additive from another manufacturer to any plastisol.
(You may want to find a recent thread that discussed storing it.)

As to how to actually print them, it depends. I have small boards as well as boards with neoprene build-ups, but it all depends on what the bags are like, and print location.
If just one color, even if using opaque ink, you find them pretty cool in that you probably won't have to P-F-P because the ink really lays on top.
Multicolor jobs can be a little tricky with shrinkage messing with registration., so pre-shrink.

You'll also want to cure at a lower heat, but the Nylobond will help with that by allowing a lower heat and still cure.

[screenxpress]

Andy, I tried to update my post but I think it got lost.

Tks for the reply, but now that I see the artwork, it would be 3 colors (underbase on dark bags and then 2 top coats) and I don't think I'm even going to try printing.

Thinking now about vinyl transfers.  Any issue with using a heat press on nylon bags?  Melt?

[Rockers]

Andy, I tried to update my post but I think it got lost.

Tks for the reply, but now that I see the artwork, it would be 3 colors (underbase on dark bags and then 2 top coats) and I don't think I'm even going to try printing.

Thinking now about vinyl transfers.  Any issue with using a heat press on nylon bags?  Melt?

Depends on the nylon bags, but from my experience transfers work much better then direct printing. We used to do 1000s of nylon bags back in London for the Rugby teams. All transfers, just make sure you sprinkle some hot melt adhesive powder on the transfers. We used poly white as last ink down followed by the powder.

[screenxpress]

Powder with vinyl transfers?

Were you speaking of plastisol transfers?

I'm confused

[Frog]

Powder with vinyl transfers?

Were you speaking of plastisol transfers?

I'm confused

He definitely is talking about screened transfers. In fact, we talked about them and nylon here a couple of weeks back.


If the run isn't real large, I think that you will do fine with nylon specific vinyl. In fact, since Diane got her machine, I've done a bunch of print and cuts on various materials. Check out her or any of the other members here in Member to Member with that capability.

[tpitman]

Wayne, the only nylon bags I've printed on are the cheap cinch-bag types. I just printed a job on them Saturday. What I discovered from the get-go a couple of years ago is that the bags absorb no ink, and regular white ink with the nylobond additive will print easily and opaquely through a 305 mesh. I had trouble printing through a 230 mesh count.
Get you pallet positively snotty with adhesive because nylon is slick. Flashing is also an extremely dicey proposition as even with heavy adhesive application, once that nylon starts to heat up, it wants to let go of the adhesive.
The job printed Saturday was 4 spot colors, three of them touching, wet-on-wet. I had to wipe the bottom of the screens about every 12 bags.

Get two or three of those $1.98 cinch bags and give it a try before printing the customer's stock.

[whitewater]

on nylon bags i just say 1 color right off the bat! I did a 4 color once...eff that!  If you print them.

[cleveprint]

agree with the simple printing on nylon. few years ago we printed a crap load of nylon panels before bag was sewn together. most of the designs we 1 and 2 color. some were 3,4,5 color and complicated designs. some looked ok, but between inks mixed with nylobond, panels shrinking under the flash before the inks could gel, it was a nightmare. ended up talking the customer out of a few designs because they didnt look that great.

[screenxpress]

Thanks all.

Andy, already been in touch with Diane.

[garagewear]

I use plastisol w nylobond. I want to say the heat is at 180 on my dryer. Have someone helping you and don't let them fall ink to ink or they will stick together. If you are doing more than one color run the bags through the dryer once before you print and let them cool. They will shrink a little. Also if you are doing multi color test and see if you need to flash. White with nylobond will cover fine. High mesh count is fine. If you need to flash play with the time and temp because too much heat with kill the nylon.

[screenxpress]

Thanks. I have to admit, finding out now it's only one color of trying athletic ink. But this guy is really non-commital on an order.  The sample bags are a heavy nylon like duffle bags and I ran one thru the dryer and reached 300 with no problems. Now it's a waiting game on the custy.

[Inkworks]

One colour is a piece of cake. Nylabond tends to thin out the ink quite a bit, so make sure you have a good ink-dam of tape at the back of the screen as it will run while the screen is tilted up. It prints very nicely and sits up on top of the nylon so you can go with a higher mesh count than you normally would.

[screenxpress]

Thanks for all the tips.  Now if only the custy comes through, lol.