Silcone Ink

[ericheartsu]

We are running our first job with silicone ink on Monday. It's gonna be a polyester material slipmat that we source and have custom built for us.

Who has printed with it? What do I need to know!

[Binkspot]

Only mix what you need. The catylis will cure the ink. Do not let the ink dry in the screen.

[Rob Coleman]

Download the new tech dat sheet from our website. Lots of great information - http://sourceone.nazdar.com/Portals/0/TDS/ImageStar-Silicone-InfoGuide_2015-web.pdf.

[blue moon]

We are running our first job with silicone ink on Monday. It's gonna be a polyester material slipmat that we source and have custom built for us.

Who has printed with it? What do I need to know!

Keep the temps low, but make sure it is dry when out of the dryer. If printing on a manual, do two strokes with the second one barely touching. On an auto, lotsa angle, slow stroke, 110 mesh, little pressure.
Make sure you wash your screens as soon as you are done as the ink will solidify in the screen.
Make sure your containers are completely sealed as humidity will make the ink go bad. Any contamination with plastisol, no matter how small, can stop your ink from curing.

Pierre

[ericheartsu]

just did my first run, and it wen't really well!

the only problem we had was trying to get the ink flashed so that it was dry. We had a hard time getting it so it was gelled enough to the touch. but otherwise, first print went well, and it had way better matt down properties than i thought it would, especially on this junk we are printing on.

we started with a 110white mesh, flashed it, then printed a 110yellow mesh over it. Next time i'll probably go with a little bit of a higher mesh for the highlight.

[Denis Kolar]

That is a poly shirt? Why so fuzzy?

[ericheartsu]

nope, not a shirt, a felt poyester slipmat

[Denis Kolar]

I guess better read the whole post

[Rob Coleman]

Eric - I have seen wet cats with less fuzz than those felt slip mats!

You may want to try this -- labor intensive, but will help on those.  Print the white - lay a sheet of teflon on the wet image - print a smoothing screen on top of the teflon - flash - remove the Teflon.  Will definitely gloss the image up though.  If the Teflon sticks a bit - spray a mist of soapy water (dawn) on it.  This is commonly used as a mold release for silicone.

Rob

[ericheartsu]

We tried using a smoothing screen, but like i mentioned in the email, the deposit where the eyes were located was maybe to thick, and was not flashing, so it was slightly sticking to the smoothing screen.

Will try again later this week!

[Rob Coleman]

We tried using a smoothing screen, but like i mentioned in the email, the deposit where the eyes were located was maybe to thick, and was not flashing, so it was slightly sticking to the smoothing screen.

Will try again later this week!

Understand that a traditional smoothing screen as used in a plastisol process will not work for matting fibers down.  Plastisols are thermoplastic, which is why a print-flash-smoothing screen works.  Will not for silicone