ELT Extreme Low Temperature DIgital Black - underbases?

[Robert Clark]

Hi Everybody,

  Hope everybody is having a great Holiday Season thus far !

  The entire ELT series is designed to save you... the printer.... time, reprints. labor, customers, and energy cost, not to mention aspirin cost  : ) . With today’s ever changing  garment you have to have choices ! This is why the ELT Series is making the difference in a lot of shops across the country, even California.  When you reach that 310 – 320 cure mark, or have long flash times bad things can and will happen .

Shrink

Ghost

Bleed

Discolor or fade

Scorch

I am going to go out on a limb here and say just about everybody has experienced these problems. So what are you going to do, not print them ?  give your customer a bad print ?  This happens everyday . One Stroke Inks wants to give you options and a product that you can trust. So whatever garment comes across your production floor, you will have full control over its DNA.

For those using the ELT or ELT-S THANK YOU !

For those who are not,  give us a call and let OSI and ELT series earn your trust .


 

[AAMike]

I tested ELT digital black at Badger on the sublimated garments and it performed well. I agree that you need to use low temp ink across the board to get the full benefit. I also tested Rutland's EKO barrier black acrylic with performance plastisol on top. I needed to do more rigorous wash testing, but it worked. Although they don't recommend putting plastisol on top of their acrylic, I think there is real potential.

[mk162]

We printed the camo hex from SanMar and it looked FANTASTIC

We printed it like this:

Black 155 mesh
Flash
.357 white 230 mesh
Flash
All top colors printed wet on wet through 230's.

Yes, the print ended up a touch thick. But it didn't have any bleed.

[Prince Art]

Prince Art

With you using the Onestroke, have you added any clear base and run that ink as sim process?
How does that work out?

No, we haven't. I have to sheepishly admit that sim process is something we still haven't ventured into. And we've tried the ELT-S inks mainly to address recent cure temp problems with Next Level's triblends, and the Digital Black to address bleeding on a some specific shirts. We were really trying to put a band-aid on a shirt problem. But in that limited experience, we've been pleased with the inks.


As for One Stroke in general, with due respect to Robert Clarke (in fact, I hope he'll hear me out): I'll say our experience thus far has been a mixed bag. On the "pros" side, they produce quality products, and have attentive reps who have helped broaden my horizons on inks. But the number one "con": they seem to be more interested in offering a bewildering array of specific, pre-mixed inks for every imaginable situation, than providing a cohesive (and coherent), flexible system that allows printers to modify inks as needed.  Low temp additives, stretch additives, soft-hand additives - we honestly CAN'T handle having these turned into separate, pre-mixed "systems". That, more than cost or distance, is our biggest reason for not getting more involved with them.
(I have a few more reasons for & against buying into OSI in a bigger way, but that's the nutshell version.)

[Frog]

As for One Stroke in general, with due respect to Robert Clarke (in fact, I hope he'll hear me out): I'll say our experience thus far has been a mixed bag. On the "pros" side, they produce quality products, and have attentive reps who have helped broaden my horizons on inks. But the number one "con": they seem to be more interested in offering a bewildering array of specific, pre-mixed inks for every imaginable situation, than providing a cohesive (and coherent), flexible system that allows printers to modify inks as needed.  Low temp additives, stretch additives, soft-hand additives - we honestly CAN'T handle having these turned into separate, pre-mixed "systems". That, more than cost or distance, is our biggest reason for not getting more involved with them.
(I have a few more reasons for & against buying into OSI in a bigger way, but that's the nutshell version.)

To be fair to the OP, readers interested in that original subject, as well as Robert at One Stroke, we almost need a dedicated thread addressing this as well as what I first brought up about distribution (or lack thereof)

[Prince Art]

Oop - sorry, no hijack intended!

[Frog]

Oop - sorry, no hijack intended!

Hey, I started it!, LOL!

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Coincidentally, when the 1st post showed up in this thread, I had just ordered a gallon of OSI ELT Digital Black.

I really have nothing to add about my experience with it, since I expect it to show up tomorrow. I'm planning to do a 4 spot color plastisol transfer run with it. (NOT 4 Color Process)

Printing (in reverse, of course) the black on top of the colored passes hopefully will yield a bleed resistant base coat, especially when using OSI Poly Adhesive Powder. Some of the substrates for these decals will be cotton, but a few of the items are bleeders. Same transfer, for all the garments/bags.

I hope it works, because this stuff is pretty spendy!

Robert happened to be gone the day I ordered it, but the rep I talked to said it would work, or I could return it.

[Colin]

We use that powder for all our transfers.

We press at 275 for about 7 seconds. Medium low pressure.

Awesome stuff!

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

We use that powder for all our transfers.

We press at 275 for about 7 seconds. Medium low pressure.

Awesome stuff!

I completely agree.

I've started using air pressure to blow off the excess and that has been a game changer. I lean up a nearly vertical piece of Alumilite or Alumi-core or whatever name brand (bonded aluminum) sign board and hang the freshly powdered transfer against it before grabbing the air nozzle. It is an extra step, but I'm NOT interested in pressing adhesive where it doesn't belong on those expensive shirts, no no no. Been there, done that.

But I'm almost a complete beginner at producing multicolor transfers in house. It took me a long time to manage shrinkage and the resultant reg problems. MUCH better now!

The girls are pressing @ 270 for 8 seconds but 55# of air pressure on a Hotronix Air Swinger. I worry about wash failure. Maybe that much pressure is overkill.

I believe there is significant engineering in this ink chemistry, and if it works as advertised it will be worth the money. I'm sure. But wowee these inks are spendy!

 I currently only stock 2 ELT colors...due to a college we print for pretty often. We get lots of bleeders from them.

[Rocky Bihl]

When formulating the Elt series, Elt-s series, and the Elt Digital Black Underbase, all of the testing was done on the sublimated digital camo from both Sanmar and Badger. If it works on that stuff, it will work on any poly!

In response to questions about cure temps being 250 to 320, or using a low cure underbase and a regular cure top ink. There is no doubt, if you use ELT inks on top of the ELT Digital Black Underbase and keep cure temps at or below 270, the LONG TERM bleed resistance, or printed shirts that customers wash hot, or dry hot (VERY BAD!) will hold up somewhat better than using a 320 curing poly ink on top of the Digital Black Underbase. Now that being said, there are a lot of people who can't run at 270, or it is not practical to just run at 270 for certain jobs. Those type of printers will find the ELT Digital Black Underbase used in combination with one of our premium poly ink series like the .357 will still have excellent results on very bad bleeders.

 If you could set your infrared or gas dryers @ 260 or 270F year round, how much could you save on your utility bills using the ELT SERIES?

[Dottonedan]

We are running this Digital black ink as an underbase on 110 mesh today.

it's going on a TYE DIE digital dye sub tee. Using the PURE white over top that but the PURE white (one stroke is 5 years old tech and the have better whites out now, but this is what we have right now.

The pure white that is designed for poly blockers... (as an underrbase) did not hold up even after printing it with 5 hits. The dye bled thru.

We will see.] with this digital black base.

[mk162]

it'll work, that Digital ELT is some good stuff.  Honestly any ink on top of it should work fine.  That poly ink may not have been the best choice for the cotton dyes.  I would have probably gone with a low bleed cotton/poly ink like Legacy and used some low cure additive.

I've added a touch of low temp curable reducer to the ELT since it's so thick.  I tend to prefer it through a 155 mesh.  a 110 would be good if there isn't a ton of coverage or you aren't putting more layers on top of the white.

Let us know the results, but I have a feeling I know what they will be.

[Dottonedan]

Well, apparently it did not work.  The only reason being, Is temp being off, (normally runs all at 360) and they "said" they lowered to 320. We have no temp gauge/donut/gun. ( I'ma gonna get one now). They ran them anyways.  Bled like a mofo. Has a distressed pattern in the solid white.

We don't have low temp curable reducer, no bleed blocker additive, No ink that is designed for high bleeders. We have an Athletic ink that is used on our Ply blends but that's about it.

The Digital black, I dusted off. Was sent in to test but we never did. Today we did. Didn't work (how they normally print).  Printed base twice via a 110 and top PURE white) our intended go to bleed blocker... twice via a 110.

They are boxed up now so. Off to the next job.

Now I know this digital black cures at 290 but they needed to cure the top white at 320.  So with not knowing what our ink temp really is, I'm sure that was the cause.

[Frog]

it's going on a TYE DIE digital dye sub tee.

Veering a little from the ink question, but let me get this straight. It's a dye subbed shirt that was then tie dyed? I don't understand how the two can interact.
Is this a commercially available shirt? Can you link to it? Or post a pic? We do all know that sublimated shirts can be horrible (ask those of us who have decorated the Sport tek Camo Hex, but where does the tie dye come in? That's usually only on cotton.

As for ruining the whole run, how difficult is it to train people to run one first and check it out, when it is a suspect problem child?