Activated Discharge Second Life

[Binkspot]

I understand once its activated discharge has a shelf life of X amount of hours and still be effective. Once the discharge is no longer active we normally dump the remaining or unused ink into a bucket for later disposal.

Now for the question, if its lets say white inks that will no longer discharge is there any reason that can not be set aside, properly stored and used at a later date as a straight water base ink on light colors. Same for std and mixed colors.

[ebscreen]

I've been told yes, but am apprehensive to ry and have yet to had time to test.

FWIW, the shelf life around here is 2-3 days with refrigeration and the right colors.

[ZooCity]

We reactivate sometimes.  I just need to test more and proceduralize (<--is that a word?) it so we can do more.

[tonypep]

It may not be a word but I use it all the time. Critical to all aspects of what we do but absolutely necessary for successful discharge printing with consistency and repeatability (Sorry Mark C)

[Orion]

The smell of aged discharge inks...no thanks. Along with being consistent and repeatable our process must be predictable, so for us, discharge inks do not have a second life. 

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

It may not be a word but I use it all the time. Critical to all aspects of what we do but absolutely necessary for successful discharge printing with consistency and repeatability (Sorry Mark C)

A clarification please:  I wasn't sure if you were saying that you use the word all the time? (proceduralize) Or if you use the ink again after the discharge agent loses its fizz.

Do you re-activate aging Discharge Inks?        I have, with no readily apparent problems.

When you talk, I listen. Just like the old E.F. Hutton commercial. (And a personal THANK YOU for helping me on the phone yesterday to familiarize myself with my Gauntlet!!)

[tonypep]

Yes, yes and you're welcome! Little busy today sorry.

[3Deep]

Just for my own testing, I place some white discharge in a tight container for over a month in the fridge might have been a little longer, took it out and let it get to room temp added some more agent and it discharged pretty good and wash test went well.  Now I would not tell anyone to d this as a standard  practice because I might have just got lucky, but it never hurt's to try it your going toss it anyway.

darryl

[ZooCity]

I think the question here is what does the ZFS do to the ink as it decays/spends it's half-life?  If nothing, or nothing of consequence, then reactivating DC ink should be no issue at all proviced the ZFS has gone through a complete decay or whatever that would be called. 

My hypothesis is the different pigs are going to have different reactions here. 

Part 2 of that hypothesis is that you will see a different outcome from reactivating, say, the very next day when the ZFS is still partially active v. letting it dwindle out completely and then reactivating.

It would be nice to reactivate commonly used colors.  At the same time I have to agree, DC has enough headaches and variables as it is.  We are currently using only fresh ink and still, we get repeat jobs that are a nightmare, mostly due to the shirt dye lot being significantly different from the last.   Using fresh for each run, at least we know that every other part of the process is screwed down tight and can isolate the issue to the dye lot. 

[Binkspot]

I have no problem tossing activated DC when done. I Have no desire to re activate DC.

We did a job the other day and the customer picked PMS 809. I mixed 1000 grams (about a quart) the night before. The customer wanted a production proof so she came in that morning, I activated the DC and did a test print. She didn't like the color on the charcoal garment. She picked another color, I mixed, tested and again not happy with it. The PMS matches were dead nuts on by the way. I ended up mixing four quarts for this job, used one. She paid for it so that's not the issue. Now I have three quarts of activated sitting on the shelf that I know could use on a light color shirt as WB. I'm sure others have left over that could be used the same way.

When I first started playing with all this I ran a few jobs as WB using the discharge base and have had no issues. So on that thought process once the activator is dead it's basicly the same thing. Am I wrong on this?

[ZooCity]

When I first started playing with all this I ran a few jobs as WB using the discharge base and have had no issues. So on that thought process once the activator is dead it's basicly the same thing. Am I wrong on this?

My tests a couple years back when we started with Sericol Texcharge showed inferior results with the DC ink unactivated v. activated.  Tested again with CCI D-Base unactives and saw a similar result.  It wasn't a catastrophic fail but, compared to using a dedicated WB base it was definitely not optimal, much more fading past 15 washes.  From those tests I decided that all DC must be activated but a low amount may be all that is needed 1-3% or even less. 

I do need to revisit this.  Early next year I have tests slated to compare different bases combined with different temps and retention times and will try again.  It would be very nice to use one base for all, but if this is something feasible why are straight WB bases offered?  That's the question I keep coming back to.  My impression is that there is less binder in DC base than WB base, so an avenue I see to make it work could be adding binder to DC mixes that are to be run unactivated but I have work to do to see if that's the solution.

[sqslabs]

Just read this article and thought of this thread:

http://www.theinkkitchen.com/2014/07/dont-toss-that-discharge-ink/

[ZooCity]

Hmmm, I've seen a lot of comments from folks that I trust know what their doing on this but no comments as to how it compares to a true WB base after many washings...particularly on blends.  I think it would be super great to reuse DC like this (aside from the smell) but it's never sussed out for us yet in wash tests.