What white ink for screen printed transfers?

[XG Print]

Took my first stab at printing plastisol transfers yesterday.  I first tried black.  Ink went down on the paper ok at first but noticed I was getting a little ghosting if you will.  Figured out less pressure seemed to be the ticket.  Question one is what squeege duro. do you use for printing these transfers.  I found the use of the crystals to really slow down production.  I wish I could find an alternative to that.  I finally got some good looking single color black transfers that pressed on to the shirt very well and I am now doing wash tests to see how they are going to hold up over several washes.  Now white ink was a different story.  I used a poly white which was probably a big no no through 110 mesh.  I never could get a good looking transfer.  I tried some 2 color where I put the black down and then sent through the dryer and brought back and put the white under base down over it and then the crystals and back through the dryer.  Every time I either got a bad transfer where it looked as though it had gotten too hot coming through dryer and did not release or got a look that was like doing the first hit of a PFP on black ts.  I also had a couple where everything transferred well but the black had white dots showing up in it from the under base.  What white would you guys recommend?  I really want to perfect these over the next month because the tournaments will be starting up and doing these ourselves will greatly increase our profit margin if i can get a good enough quality transfer.  We are using the Ultrastrip 300 paper I think it is...Thanks for any advice or tips!!

[Robert Clark]

Hi XG,

  Transfers can be a bit tricky.. Many factors to consider.

What paper are you using ?

What Powder fine or coarse ?

What was your gel temps ?

Please give me a call and I will try and help the best I can.. We have a few systems that can make this easy ..

Our ELT inks or ELT ZIP .. Offers a low temp alternative to help protect the garment.

[larryk]

We use the 380 series ink from One Stroke for both cold peel and hot split.... very nice ink and it works great. No powder needed!
For hot split we use the Ultrastrip 3000 and the t105 for our cold peel. No powder needed! Most of our transfer customers do event printing for wrestling and softball or baseball tournaments and they have no problems at all. Did I mention that No Powder Is Needed! Good luck with your transfers.

[XG Print]

We use the 380 series ink from One Stroke for both cold peel and hot split.... very nice ink and it works great. No powder needed!
For hot split we use the Ultrastrip 3000 and the t105 for our cold peel. No powder needed! Most of our transfer customers do event printing for wrestling and softball or baseball tournaments and they have no problems at all. Did I mention that No Powder Is Needed! Good luck with your transfers.

Great!!  I will definitely give them a shot.  What durometer squeeges do you normally use or does it really matter?

[larryk]

We use a triple duro squeegee but we do all our transfers on a Lawson flat bed printer so our pressure is constant.... just to mention we also use 86 mesh screens on almost all of our work.

[Frog]

When I did transfers, my rule of thumb was always one step lower mesh than direct print.
My mesh sizes were fairly limited as we;ll so today, I could fine tune a bit more.
If normally a 110 (back in the day) I'd use a 86. A 160 would get changed to 110, etc.
I've never used finer than a 160.

[willy35]

We do some transfer, manly 1 color white for black garment, we use 80 to  120, gentle squeege pressure, 1 stroke always.

Ghosting could be due to moving transfer sheet, too much squeege pressure, possible ink gel temp too low...

For you 2 colors black + white I would have print with 305 - 225  black then 110 white.

If the ink is not design for transfer, then I add very fine powder in it, and still powder the last color with coarser powder.

Last I prefer waterbased for this kind of design, it is more durable transfer with superior wash fastness and greater opacity.

[TCT]

We have had killer results with the Excalibur 950 series. No powder, no mess, if memory serves correctly 900 series is cold split, 950 is hot split.

[XG Print]

We have had killer results with the Excalibur 950 series. No powder, no mess, if memory serves correctly 900 series is cold split, 950 is hot split.

Thanks I used to use a lot of Excalibur ink and liked it so I will give the 950 series a try as well.

[XG Print]

Thanks for the mesh tips. I was probably too high with the black. I used a 200 on it. Do you flood the screen for transfers like you would t-shirt. Sounds like getting a good print with a single stroke is a must.

[1964GN]

Flood/Print>Flash. Repeat for multiple colors. Do not double stroke

158-ish should work for black but I would go 83-110 for white.

For colors (lets say red) I would print/flash red. Print/flash white. Choke the white 3 pixel at 300dpi

For multiple colors you need to print/flash each color except for the last one.

Did a lot of this in my previous life