Waterbased ink and polyester items

[ericheartsu]

I have a client that wants to print some 100% polyester bandannas with black waterbased ink.

i was under the impression that waterbased isn't meant for 100% polyester items. is that correct?

[Gilligan]

I have a retardedly limited knowledge of this field... so why are you opening your mouth?  Who said that?! 

BUT, I think Dye Sub is where you want to be to do black on 100%.  Pretty much no hand to it like wb ink.

[ZooCity]

I think it can still work but there may be wicking issues with printing.  Contact your ink mfg and ask 'em or run a few and see.  Let me know what you find out.  I know that most are ok on blends with the above caveat.

Most poly bandanas are cheapo, have a terrible hand and generally suck to begin with so I see no crime in putting down some soft hand plastysol if these are just promos. 

I clarify that up front with bandana orders if it's a promo item or something of finer quality they're going for. 

Dye sub would be dandy but sounds like a lot more cost/work than screen printing?

[brandon]

Yeah, 50/50's and triblends no problem. We did print 1,000+ bandannas awhile ago that were 100% poly with jet black matsui wb. Did a few testers first and washed just fine. Of course some poly is better than others but always test first with that situation and any you are not 100% sure on.

[ZooCity]

brandon, you guys run all matsui? do you use the underbase blocker they make?

 had a sericol rep in this week and I think were going to run texcharge, inactivated, as our regular wb.  tech says it should go fine on blends but theres no dye blocking underbase in that system

[JBLUE]

Based out plastisol with fashion base or reducer. Should have little to no hand on poly.

[brandon]

brandon, you guys run all matsui? do you use the underbase blocker they make?

 had a sericol rep in this week and I think were going to run texcharge, inactivated, as our regular wb.  tech says it should go fine on blends but theres no dye blocking underbase in that system

Hey Chris,
Nah. Matsui pigments and specialty stuff like the Jett Black which is the blackest of all black I have ever seen. For base and white CCI. Super cheap, brighter prints, and less activator. We have and do use the underbase blocker when needed. Caution - you need to use a brighter pantone than what you need as the print will darken up.

And starting next week to mess around with the Rutland WB. Everyone's WB seems to have their pro's and con's.

[Hegemone]

I printed matsui opaque white on a denier poly nook case (trash) for giggles and then flash cured it. I melted one side (because the phone rang and i forgot to start the timer but I was fine on the other side. I later took the power washer to it for 5 minutes and it didn't phase it at all, i was sure it was going to flake off but i was pleasantly surprised. I have even printed it to a piece of glass and again found it to be relatively durable i had to take sharp metal to it to get it to scrape. There is no issue with mastsui bonding to poly. It has issues with stretch and migration. Hence stretch versions and low bleed underbases. I have also printed black on 100 percent white and have washed it a number of times and have had no issues with it coming out. I make no promises, just sharing my experiences with matsui so far. I goof around quite a bit to push the  boundaries of my knowledge a bit so I do a lot of weird things that make people shake their heads. I also don't trust manufacturers to tell me the truth, most of the time they just tell me part of the truth and try to sell me something else. That's why I always have to try the things they tell me not to try, mostly with horrific results but sometimes please fly surprised.