Acrylic Ink... whatchaknow???

[T Shirt Farmer]

I had a couple gals come in that are from Europe and have a retail line they want to print here locally. They left a sample for me to review and after some research it seems to be acrylic ink. It is a 2 color print on white, hot pink and black. The pink appears pretty much like WB ink but has a bit of a transfer feel to it. They put 100% coverage of pink under the black which makes the black glossy and has even more of the rubber feel of a transfer.  When the fabric is stretched the weave does separate much like a typical WB print. There  designer insist on 2 hits of every color and and wants the prints be heat pressed as part of the finishing process.

What I have heard about Acrylic inks. They smell up your shop like a nail salon on steroids. The ink dries in the screen super easily. The chit is expensive and only a hand full of rather large shops that print for Nike etc are successful with it.

These gals are only running 100 shirts per design so I am not sure if it is really worth the time if there is a lengthily learning curve and wiping out a ton of product to learn the process.

Comments???

[ericheartsu]

is it acrylic ink? or rubber ink?

I'm pretty sure we use acrylic ink in our flatstock dept. as it's used to print on paper pretty frequently.

[Frog]

I use some acrylic water based ink on paper, but have no idea what this acrylic ink for textiles is that feels rubbery. (of course, there is a lot that I don't know, especially about new inks)
For that matter, I'm also a little thrown by "feel of a transfer". Except for purposely thick athletic inks peeled cold, for the last twenty years, most transfers don't feel much different than direct plastisol prints

[pwalsh]

I had a couple gals come in that are from Europe and have a retail line they want to print here locally. They left a sample for me to review and after some research it seems to be acrylic ink. It is a 2 color print on white, hot pink and black. The pink appears pretty much like WB ink but has a bit of a transfer feel to it. They put 100% coverage of pink under the black which makes the black glossy and has even more of the rubber feel of a transfer.  When the fabric is stretched the weave does separate much like a typical WB print. There  designer insist on 2 hits of every color and and wants the prints be heat pressed as part of the finishing process.

What I have heard about Acrylic inks. They smell up your shop like a nail salon on steroids. The ink dries in the screen super easily. The chit is expensive and only a hand full of rather large shops that print for Nike etc are successful with it.

These gals are only running 100 shirts per design so I am not sure if it is really worth the time if there is a lengthily learning curve and wiping out a ton of product to learn the process.

Comments???

You might want check in with your customer to get an idea of exactly what type of inks that they are requesting.  With their coming from Europe my suspicion is that they do not want you to use a PVC based or typical plastisol ink in their print production. The EU countries are well ahead of the US in steering away from PVC ink systems toward other technologies. 

There are a number of acrylic based ink systems on the market from PolyOne/Wilflex, Lancer, & Sericol along with some really good high solids water base inks from international Coatings, Rutland, PolyOne/Wilflex and Magna Colours.  I don’t think that you need to worry about offensive odors with this inks, but you will need to make some changes in your screen making, stencil preparation, print processing, and curing compared to traditional plastisol inks.

[Rockers]

Magna Colors do an acrylic ink. As a matter of fact I will get some samples soon. Will let you know what they are like once I have done some test prints. But as far as I know most of their inks are free of any harmful substances. Soil Association approved.

[tonypep]

Peter is pretty much right on. I prefer the Sericol product but still contend these are not fit for (the average) human consumption. No odors but if you blink it will dry in the screen. Still experimenting with open air extenders and the like. Right now I would not pursue the project mentioned above in this manner.

[sking]

I recently had the opportunity to see a printed sample of a high solids acrylic ink from Magna Colours. The sample was durable, had a soft hand and the colors looked great.

[blue moon]

the acrylic stuff I've seen just seemed too harsh. I might have been looking at the wrong samples, but they were brought over as representatives of good printing.
The silicone based ink Nazdar is carrying feels much nicer and it printed pretty easily. I have not tried multicolor yet, but will post something when I do.

In this case, I would just offer them waterbased and see what they say.

pierre