QCM whites

[Rockers]

Unfortunately where we are based you will be charged for ink samples. Just to get a 1/8 of a gallon Max Production White ink sample of our QCM ink distributer did cost me around $20. That white was recommended to us by the distributer but I thought it's rather terrible. It's just climbing up your squeegee.
Is there not a better QCM white around? They seem to have so many different ones, it's almost not practical for us to get a sample of each, especially not at those charges. Any recommendations are welcome.

[dirkdiggler]

i used to use 158 and 159, they both were great.

[Inkworks]

We'v been using the WOW white. Not bad so far for what we've done, but we haven't done too much comparing to others yet.

[alan802]

The 159 is great at everything except staying in the ink well during automatic printing.  It climbs the squeegee and floodbar so badly that it's not worth dealing with.  It is very opaque and flashes fast, literally everything about it is great except the climbing.  We mix our 159 with Triangle Phoenix 50/50 but I've been thinking of going up to 60% on the 159.  The 158 isn't as opaque as the 159 but it doesn't climb as bad, but it still climbs more than I'd like.

[ZooCity]

what alan said, it's a climber on the manual too but great ink. hopefully it's consistently made now, it had way too much variance bucket to bucket before.

if you keep it warm most if the climbing issues become negligible

we switched to wilflex epic quick which has better all around characteristics and us very consistent but it's not quite as optically bright.

[Frog]

"climbers" can be helped with the addition of a little reducer or soft base, but, of course, can lose a bit of opacity in the deal.

Even on a manual, it can be annoying, on an auto, an absolute pain!

[ScreenPrinter123]

Has anyone tried the QCM 158.1?  And how does the QCM 151 stack up against what seems to be a usually promoted white in the QCM 159?

Thanks.

[MeLC]

I would recommend the XOLB-142 (Fast Flashing White), which was created to be a fast flashing production white. The XOLB-158/159/151 do seem prone to climbing, but some have great success with these products. The softee base is the recommended additive to help with climbing, but is a pain and extra step. I have been hearing the ink has been more consistent from printers, but if anyone has any problems or sees otherwise let me know!

Does anyone else out there have any comments to add about the XOLB-142?

Has anyone tried the QCM 158.1?  And how does the QCM 151 stack up against what seems to be a usually promoted white in the QCM 159?

Thanks.

The XOLB-158.1 has not been available for at least 2 years, so if a distributor has it, chances are it is pretty old, who is the distributor? The XOLB-151 was meant to be a production version of the popular XOLB-158. The XOLB-159 is similar to the XOLB-158 however has a little more bleed resistance, a little more opacity and a little bit of a brighter white. This is usually reflected in the cost. I had been told the X-159 is like X-158 on steroids, however, I have heard several times that they have a tendency to be climbers. With that said; the XOLB-142 is not as bright as the X-158 or X-159 but seems to be more successful as a fast flashing production white, than the X-151 (previously created production version X-158).

I also had a couple of questions for Rockers:
Who is your distributor?
What are the cost associated with the sample, product? shipping?

Feel free to email me any questions about the differences in the long list of QCM white inks. Thanks!

Best Regards'
Melissa Cambra 

MelissaC@Rutlandinc.com

[alan802]

I knew I had done some research on QCM Whites at some point and I found my notes.  Their website allows you to sort the different whites by opacity, flash times, bleed resistance, cost and stretchability.  This is what I came up with out of the categories I was interested in.  Here is a link to the page that you can sort through and filter the ink based on the major categories that us screen printers are interested in. http://www.qcminks.com/qcm_white_inks.php

I wish more ink manufacturers used something like QCM has there, I found it very informative and I would love to see it with others.

COTTON ONLY WHITES:

WOW 101:
Opacity=4/7 (4th out of the 7 cotton inks)
Flash time=6/7

HW 101 Highlight White
Opacity=3/7
Flash time=7/7

XOLB 108 Cotton White
Opacity=7/7
Flash time=4/7

XOLB 102 Cotton White
Opacity=2/7
Flash time=5/7

XOLB 109 Simply White
Opacity=6/7
Flash time=3/7

XOLB 130 Fast Flash White
Opacity=1/7
Flash time=2/7

XOLB 142 Max Production White
Opacity=5/7
Flash time=1/7


LOW BLEED WHITES:

XOLB 150 Original Glacier White
Opacity=5/6
Flash time=5/6
Bleed resistance=6/6

XOLB 151 Glacier Max White
Opacity=2/6
Flash time=4/6
Bleed resistance=2/6

XOLB 158 Creamy Glacier White
Opacity=6/6
Flash time=1/6
Bleed resistance=4/6

XOLB 158.1 New Glacier White
Opacity=4/6
Flash time=3/6
Bleed resistance=5/6

XOLB 159 Glacier Plus White
Opacity=3/6
Flash time=2/6
Bleed resistance=3/6

XOLB Polar White
Opacity=1/6
Flash time=6/6
Bleed resistance=1/6

[ScreenPrinter123]

Alan,

Do you bi-locate with your spare time?  I hate you.

 

[alan802]

I wish I could that, I'd get a lot more stuff done and I could take more than a 2 day vacation some day.

[ScreenFoo]

Thanks for the notes, Alan.  Saving us all a lot of web-button jockeying. 

I've only done the 109, 158, and 159, and although the 109 seemed like pretty good ink, the 158 was good, and I just got samples of the 159--and I think they were either a bad batch, heat damaged, or some such horrible fate befell them before they got into my hands. 

The 109 I've run a bit of, and I like it--doesn't climb too bad, and we didn't have flash time problems.  I'd definitely try it out if you're doing lots of cotton.

[alan802]

I ordered a gal of the 130 today.  I talked to a rep from the supplier I get my qcm from and he was asking me why I wanted the 130 and that no other printers were requesting it but he was being rude about it like I was some idiot printer (entirely possible) and I should be buying the 158 &  159 like every other shop in town was doing.  I hate it when suppliers act like they know everything but I was asking him questions that I knew the answers to and he wasn't even close to being right with all the different qcm whites and their characteristics.

[Rockers]

I would recommend the XOLB-142 (Fast Flashing White), which was created to be a fast flashing production white. The XOLB-158/159/151 do seem prone to climbing, but some have great success with these products. The softee base is the recommended additive to help with climbing, but is a pain and extra step. I have been hearing the ink has been more consistent from printers, but if anyone has any problems or sees otherwise let me know!

Does anyone else out there have any comments to add about the XOLB-142?

Has anyone tried the QCM 158.1?  And how does the QCM 151 stack up against what seems to be a usually promoted white in the QCM 159?

Thanks.

The XOLB-158.1 has not been available for at least 2 years, so if a distributor has it, chances are it is pretty old, who is the distributor? The XOLB-151 was meant to be a production version of the popular XOLB-158. The XOLB-159 is similar to the XOLB-158 however has a little more bleed resistance, a little more opacity and a little bit of a brighter white. This is usually reflected in the cost. I had been told the X-159 is like X-158 on steroids, however, I have heard several times that they have a tendency to be climbers. With that said; the XOLB-142 is not as bright as the X-158 or X-159 but seems to be more successful as a fast flashing production white, than the X-151 (previously created production version X-158).

I also had a couple of questions for Rockers:
Who is your distributor?
What are the cost associated with the sample, product? shipping?

Feel free to email me any questions about the differences in the long list of QCM white inks. Thanks!

Best Regards'
Melissa Cambra 

MelissaC@Rutlandinc.com

Our distributer is Prism in Tokyo. They charge for every sample which is not even a qt. at least US$20 + delivery of course. The XLOB-142 was recommended by them but that too climbs a lot. Might try the 130 as Alan said.

[ZooCity]

Alan, what you did with testing those inks is what every rep oughta be doing if the ink mfg doesn't provide sufficient data on their own.

That's some serious diligence!  We tried like three QCM whites I think, 159 seemed best and so we printed with it for 4 years.  I have the love for but not the time and gumption for the comparisons you're doing and I'm impressed.