Trouble with silicon inks

[Rockers]

Now that we have some silicon inks at our shop and tried it on a couple of smaller left breast prints we thought we might give it a shot on a big center front chest print. 150-S mesh. Ran right away into some trouble. Print onto the garments left a serious deposit of ink on the pallets which then transferred ink back to the inside of the dry fit tee while pulling it off the pallet. As it seems this is almost unavoidable to have ink on the inside of the garment. As a matter of fact we even had ink on the inside of the opposite side of the garment to where the print was after we put it on the dryer belt. Obviously it was from both inside sides touching while being on the dryer belt. Is there some sort of work around. We added 4% catalyst to the ink. Flashin the print before pulling it off the pallet would take too long and would still leave the pallet wet. I think it took us over 8 secs at 1000F to get that layer of ink on the pallet slightly touch dry.

[Binkspot]

Way too much pressure. After a long run on dri fit we may have a faint image on the pallets. I use 5-6% catylist so it cures and flashes faster but it will start to set up quicker in the screen.

[pwalsh]

Now that we have some silicon inks at our shop and tried it on a couple of smaller left breast prints we thought we might give it a shot on a big center front chest print. 150-S mesh. Ran right away into some trouble. Print onto the garments left a serious deposit of ink on the pallets which then transferred ink back to the inside of the dry fit tee while pulling it off the pallet. As it seems this is almost unavoidable to have ink on the inside of the garment. As a matter of fact we even had ink on the inside of the opposite side of the garment to where the print was after we put it on the dryer belt. Obviously it was from both inside sides touching while being on the dryer belt. Is there some sort of work around. We added 4% catalyst to the ink. Flashin the print before pulling it off the pallet would take too long and would still leave the pallet wet. I think it took us over 8 secs at 1000F to get that layer of ink on the pallet slightly touch dry.

Binkspot is right about way too much pressure.  The silicone inks have a way different rheology than a traditional plastisol.  I'd recommend that you print a first down white or clear through a higher mesh count screen at a lower pressure then flash to seal the surface of the garment that you can print the rest of your colors on top of.  There's no way that you want that much ink going down into and through the garment.

[Rockers]

Roger that:)  Thanks guys.

[Ross_S]

Make sure you wash test your product.  It's a great ink but it doesn't hold up on all the polyester apparel.  You can have problems with the same product that is made in 2 different origins.  I still use some Silicon but have transitioned toe One Stroke ELT and not had to worry about any of those issues.

[ZooCity]

I'm a greenhorn to sil inks so forgive my potentially stupid question but does silicone ink adhere better or worse to siliconized or sil washed fabrics?