Plasticharge or Waterbase Discharge?

[farmboygraphics]

Are there advantages of one over the other besides the hand?

[Frog]

Limited use here in the past, but the only advantage I found with plastisol based discharge inks over water based ones was the ability to use a dryer without forced air (as there is less water vapor to evaporate)
Conventional discharge inks, I would think, offer more variety and versatility due in no small part to their wider selection and availability from different manufacturers.

[ebscreen]

I'll second what Andy said and add that things like a bright white or red were not possible when I was
messing around with the stuff. That may have changed since.

Certainly extends the usefulness of plastisols but it's not something I would use commercially, it
was always a crapshoot which colors would pastel on you.

[farmboygraphics]

it was always a crapshoot which colors would pastel on you.

This, this is one of the reasons I've held of. It was my hope that plastisol would be a little more forgiving.

[zanegun08]

Are there advantages of one over the other besides the hand?

I'd say after washing you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a good waterbase discharge and good plasticharge print.

Pros of Plasticharge

 - Doesn't Dry in the Screen
 - Cost Less
 - Extends your life of ink as you add up to 50% plasticharge base to the colors
 - Easy to Work With

Cons of Plasticharge

 - Color Matching is More Difficult
 - Color shifts once discharged
 - Bright colors more difficult
 - Need a high opacity plastisol to work correctly (Maxopaque which is pastel by nature in my opinion)


We don't currently print plasticharge at my current place of work, but that is mainly since our main plastisol (Rutland Claira) are not mixed the high opacity formulas so the color shifts when adding plasticharge make it difficult.  As well as we are already "mostly skilled" at printing waterbase so it isn't a major need.  Although I think for smaller manual orders with higher color counts it would be interesting to give it a shot in it's current state since it's been about 8+ years since I've used it, and we have Mixopaque which we use for Custom Ink orders.


Pros of Waterbase Discharge

 - Cleans up with water
 - Can hit brighter colors more "easily"

Cons of Waterbase Discharge

 - Drys in the screen (not as bad as HSA though)
 - More Expensive
 - Smaller pigments can cause weird anomalies in the prints, so strain your inks through mesh or something


If you don't currently print waterbase, plasticharge is a great product where you can mostly print it like plastisol, have great results, and not worry about your inks drying.

If there is a color that you can't hit with plasticharge that you are trying, or your print has a bright red / orange, then I'd suggest you plasticharge underbase, and then do a soft hand color on top, after washing you can have similar effects to a traditional waterbase discharge print, with almost no hand on the shirt.  For white ink, as of 8 years ago I'd still suggest using a traditional waterbase discharge as that will have the best result, though this could've been improved.

I'm a fan of plasticharge, I'd give it a shot, any printer can work with it more easily, it's a great product, and a smaller learning curve than waterbase, I also liked the way it smelled

[Frog]

Another pro, if I remember correctly, once mixed, the plasticharge can now be washed up with water.

I often seem like the only one who remembers it, but I lament the discontinuation of Union's short-lived Plawtersol ink way back.
It had the printing and screen behavior of Plastisol, but allowed water clean up.

[screenxpress]

I have gotten some great tips for Plasticharge (also Ryocharge) from members on the boards which prompted me to set up an Excel sheet for mixing weights using either Union Ultrasoft (which has been very successful) OR a heavier pigment load ink.

I've posted this before, but I'll lay it in here now.  Note that it's in zip form to comply with the sites acceptable file types.  There are some open source apps to open if current Excel is not an option.  In no option to open, let me know and I'll see what I could do.