Wilflex Epic Halftone Base

[ZooCity]

Those of you on the PC system, what are you using for inks that need to be based back for transparency on sim pro work?

We mix our inks with the Amazing Base at essentially maximum pigment load.  Max pigment mix is used for spot colors.  Amazing Base is added back for transparency when printing process work or as desired/required.  This saves labor since we don't have to mix various pigment loads, i.e. a bucket of 485c can be an opaque spot color (that gets flashed) or based back for process work or wow printing of spot process stuff.  It's no fun running a recycle routine on an ink just to raise/lower it's opacity while a sim pro job is waiting for a color revision on the press.

The only issue is that sometimes the mixes with a lot of base added back, such as a 50/50 mix of max pigment ink and base, aren't very balanced in terms of their on press performance.   They flood and clear poorly and seem to be missing some plasticizer that would have been present with more pigment loading. 

Looking for a clear halftone base or extender to add back to these higher opacity inks for happier printing.  I don't like additives at all, the only one we use here is viscosity buster (plasticizer) up to 1% for certain, thick as caulk, performance inks but we added it at 1% to these base heavy mixes this week due to impossible on press characteristics of the ink. 

Is the epic halftone base a good fit?

[Colin]

Ooooold School: Mark Coudray always touted adding the HD base to any ink that would print halftones/simprocess.  For him, at that time, it was all about dot resolution and detail hold.

I know you know your stuff Chris, I recommend you give Wilflex a call so you can talk chemistry/details with their guys.  They will understand the balance of the inks, when you get to lower pigment ratios, so they can point you in a better direction that is optimal for you. 

[Orion]

Yes in the past Coudray called for the addition of 2% HD base.

Don’t forget to print with an ink that was designed for halftone printing. They are a bit
more expensive, but worth it. These inks are creamy smooth, easy printing, but hold
the dot shape perfectly. If you do not have halftone inks, you can make any ink a
halftone ink by adding 2% high density base (by weight) to the ink. This will keep the
ink from flowing together  ~Coudray

From time to time we would add Union Tru-Tone Process base, which also was recommended by Coudray.

[ZooCity]

Oooeee, we got some HD clear here.  It does have excellent sidewall definition. 

We use Union Triple Strength 4CP here and I have some of that base as well.   They are notably different from our wilflex inks and there's a question of compatibility. 

This is now a palm to forehead moment for me as I realize that by adding in so much Amazing base to the inks we are likely pushing the min PC loading to low.  Had we mixed them in the IMS v. weighing out base I bet it would have triggered a warning. 

[DannyGruninger]

I'm not a fan of the HD base here... As the ink starts to print it becomes very long bodied imo.... The ink gets super runny and looks glossy as well........ We use finesse base here or union soft hand clear which has been the best for us.

[ZooCity]

Yeah this is one for Steve Hedge, I have a note in to him requesting assistance.   I can't quite tell which product wilflex intends for this use.

Danny are you adding 2% HD clear to the ink or are you using it as a base itself?   

I think our issue is that the ink we run is perfectly fine, it just changes characteristics dramatically at low PC load.  We just need base or clear ink that will allow it to stay balanced.

[ZooCity]

Well that was fast, Steve recommends finesse.   How are you using it, in place of a clear/base or as an additive to the ink?

[DannyGruninger]

Well that was fast, Steve recommends finesse.   How are you using it, in place of a clear/base or as an additive to the ink?

Depends on what we are trying to do..... If we are printing say a flame job with red/yellow blending to make orange when we mix the colors we will substitute out a % of the mixing base with actual finesse base. Otherwise typically we use it as an additive but lots of the seps I run here we use a few based back colors to get some better transitions on those colors.

Again I dont like HD clear because it sheer thins on press as you print it and to me it looks glossy...... Trick of the trade here in my shop our sim process ink usually gets finesse base + a touch of puff added to it(to kill the gloss)