Silicone Ink

[brandon]

Hey Everyone,
Just started printing this week with silicone ink. Very, very cool! Pretty amazing stuff. Just seeing if any one of the old timers out there can chime in with experience. With the correct mesh and EOM the ink deposit is amazing. Our client is going for the super thick high density thing. The sporty, snowboarding hiking glove thing. Don't know if that makes sense but imagine the thickest print and multiply by 3. A lot of microns going on! And you can add pigment to the ink so it is not clear. Just can't wait to be in full production! We saw it in Long Beach at the ISS show and we have a very large client who needs a lot of work. Hopefully we can bring it back to the US from China. Man, I need to start learning Mandarin Chinese. Any info would be great! Thanks people

[ZooCity]

No kidding.  Who's making it?  Last I checked Dow-Corning had nearly abandoned there sil ink project.

[Sbrem]

No kiddin', we just had to buy some for some Speedo caps. I am one of the old timers, but haven't had to use it before this, the caps were always rubber, and therefore used rubber inks... it did print very well

Steve

pricey

[ZooCity]

Steve what kind of rubber inks?  I've seen ones for latex but I need to print on some bike innertubes, butyl rubber. 

[ebscreen]

Zoo, have you talked to Union Process? They have a helpful tech on board.

[pwalsh]

No kidding.  Who's making it?  Last I checked Dow-Corning had nearly abandoned there sil ink project.

Not sure where you got the word that DOW were abandoning their silicone textile inks project but the information is incorrect.  In reality the situation is almost exactly the opposite.  Nazdar SourceOne has been working with DOW on a co-manufactured program utilizing their clear mixing base of partnered with a Nazdar Developed Pigment Concentrate system, along with ready for use RFU Underbase white and black. 

The system will be marketed under the Nazdar ImageStar label “powered” by DOW and is currently in beta test at a small number of accounts across the United States, that focus on the decoration of performance athletic wear.  These printers are interested in the Silicone inks due to their Non-PVC chemistry, superior adhesion, stretch ability, and resistance to abrasion. 

It’s still way too early to claim that the combination of DOW and Nazdar SourceOne have developed an ink system that has hit it out of the park with regard to on-press performance, but the initial reviews are all very positive. More news to follow. 

[mk162]

Very good to know.  Would silicone ink be a good fit for 100% cotton?

[Colin]

Just a tidbit about silicone inks that very few people know about.

Any silicone ink you mix/buy will need to have an activator added for it to crosslink/cure. 

This is just like what you need to do currently for jackets.  Also it is similar to adding ZFS to waterbase inks to get the discharge effect.  Once it is catalized you will have a 6-8 hour window to print your ink.  Once you are done, you will need to dispose of the ink as it waill harden up just like jacket inks will.

Otherwise, everything I have heard and seen about the silicone inks for the last several years has been very promising.

[pwalsh]

Just a tidbit about silicone inks that very few people know about.

Any silicone ink you mix/buy will need to have an activator added for it to crosslink/cure. 

This is just like what you need to do currently for jackets.  Also it is similar to adding ZFS to waterbase inks to get the discharge effect.  Once it is catalized you will have a 6-8 hour window to print your ink.  Once you are done, you will need to dispose of the ink as it waill harden up just like jacket inks will.

Otherwise, everything I have heard and seen about the silicone inks for the last several years has been very promising.

Colin:  Thanks for chiming in with this important information about the activator, and you’re absolutely correct about the 8 hour pot-life for the catalyzed ink. On a very long (extending over multiple shifts) run it’s entirely possible that you will need to mix multiple batches of ink to complete the job which is why having an accurate and repeatable color matching system is so important.  I hope that you are doing well and that you get hired on with someone real soon.

[Frog]

Just a tidbit about silicone inks that very few people know about.

Any silicone ink you mix/buy will need to have an activator added for it to crosslink/cure. 

This is just like what you need to do currently for jackets.  Also it is similar to adding ZFS to waterbase inks to get the discharge effect.  Once it is catalized you will have a 6-8 hour window to print your ink.  Once you are done, you will need to dispose of the ink as it waill harden up just like jacket inks will.

Otherwise, everything I have heard and seen about the silicone inks for the last several years has been very promising.

Colin:  Thanks for chiming in with this important information about the activator, and you’re absolutely correct about the 8 hour pot-life for the catalyzed ink. On a very long (extending over multiple shifts) run it’s entirely possible that you will need to mix multiple batches of ink to complete the job which is why having an accurate and repeatable color matching system is so important.  I hope that you are doing well and that you get hired on with someone real soon.

Back in April 2010, I was curious about a new miracle ink for performance fabrics, and I was told by a Dow rep that it was actually being held back for a reformulation to improve pot life.
I was also lead to believe that I would have to qualify for a second mortgage to get this stuff, but hopefully that was an exageration. 

[ZooCity]

Thanks for the update Peter!  And the input Colin!  I got that impression from a rep from D-C a year or maybe more back.  They seemed to be having trouble with the on-press performance generally speaking at that time.  I can't remember which project I was into at the time that I was hunting it down for. 

My shop would be interested in a silicone ink as somewhat rarely used (assuming the price point is high as Frog mentioned) ink for both garments when called for but also those weird items like this butyl rubber I need to print on that obviously needs an ink with a lot of adhesion.  The bike innertubes in this case are sewn into wallets so it would seem a good fit there to have a durable, slightly HD looking logo.  The attraction is having an ink that has the durability and adhesion of a solvent system without the solvents.  Price would be less of an issue for us if you could buy it as a base that could be pigmented with PCs for example.  I don't predict many applications where you'd be printing large areas of the sil ink.  Thick/tall perhaps.   

[ZooCity]

Oh and this stuff is low-temp cure right?

[Frog]

Oh and this stuff is low-temp cure right?

That's what initially excited us for problem fabrics.

[pwalsh]

Thanks for the update Peter!  And the input Colin!  I got that impression from a rep from D-C a year or maybe more back.  They seemed to be having trouble with the on-press performance generally speaking at that time.  I can't remember which project I was into at the time that I was hunting it down for. 

My shop would be interested in a silicone ink as somewhat rarely used (assuming the price point is high as Frog mentioned) ink for both garments when called for but also those weird items like this butyl rubber I need to print on that obviously needs an ink with a lot of adhesion.  The bike innertubes in this case are sewn into wallets so it would seem a good fit there to have a durable, slightly HD looking logo.  The attraction is having an ink that has the durability and adhesion of a solvent system without the solvents.  Price would be less of an issue for us if you could buy it as a base that could be pigmented with PCs for example.  I don't predict many applications where you'd be printing large areas of the sil ink.  Thick/tall perhaps.   

Zoo:  You are right about the on-press performance and stability issues with the initial versions of the DOW silicone inks.  I "think" that working together Nazdar and DOW have overcome these earlier problems on the current version of the ImageStar / DOW co-branded product, and I'll know even more after the Beta testing is completed.  The ink is pricey, no doubt about it, but it's not out of this world.  (It might put another $0.10 to $0.15 on the cost of a printed garment and I'll gladly post pricing on this site as soon as the ink is officially launched. 

[mk162]

And when it's made for a while, and the production ramps up, the prices will probably drop slightly.

I am printing the crap out of technical stuff right now.  Never seems to end.  We have a contract customer that makes shirts overseas and sells them to sports leagues.