Anyone here print swim caps?

[Printhouse]

I just thought I would hit up fellow members before going to one of the large places online.  I am looking for approx 30-40 swim caps.  Most likely will be one color print on green caps.  Or...  this might be something I could do myself?  I have never printed on latex caps like this.

[JBLUE]

I have had request for these as well. I wonder if they are printed similar to balloons? Calling Balloonguy...........

[Inkworks]

I've printed them. We used a rubber ink, the same as used for balloons, it's weird stuff being rubber based and solvent carried, but it worked well. I actually pad printed them as that's all I had at the time, but obviously screening is the way to go.

Make a simple platen, or use a rounded end sleeve platen.

Make sure they are rubber or latex and not silicone, Silicone caps require a silicone ink. 30-40 is a nice small run, so you're probably okay with just a little multi purpose retarder (butyl cellosolve) in the ink. If you're doing a larger run you really need to work out the right thinner combo to keep it from drying in the screen or being too runny. Pop them on the conveyor at ~150 - 175F and give them 10 minutes or so, maybe rack them after to cool down.

[Frog]

Note that this is not the Union we are familiar with.

http://www.unionprocess.com/inks.html

[balloonguy]

I like http://dischem.com/ much better for ink. They are a lot nicer to deal with and will walk through anything that you may need.
I have never done a swim cap but I am sure it is similar to balloons. We do not feed latex through the dryer. We air dry everything. Hair dryers with no heat will work wonders. If you are not careful using a hot dryer you can shrink the latex in some places.
Matt

[Sbrem]

Seems to me we've used both of those inks. They both work well, short shelf life. Pretty easy to use, but don't take any breaks, just zip through it and clean up immediately.

Steve

[balloonguy]

The quality of the inks is very similar. I think dischem is cheaper and more importantly... Dischem has great customer service. I have not found that at union process.
The inks can be thinned with mineral spirits. Make sure you have a solvent resistant emulsion. Once you get going it will be pretty easy.
Matt

[ebscreen]

Yep, done it for a friend of my pops. Used Union, thinned with mineral spirits. Not much too it, just
make sure they aren't the silicone ones.

[Sbrem]

The silicone ones do need a special ink. We did one run, same thing, work quickly.

Steve

[ebscreen]

I was under the impression that printing silicone was like printing teflon or something, next
to impossible. Good to hear it's not.

[Inkworks]

Silicone ink

It even works for padprinting which uses a silicone pad to transfer the ink that sticks to silicone, figure that one out....... And yes it works, we did a few elastomeric keypads back in the day.

[ebscreen]

For some reason we get a lot of requests to print smartphone and tablet covers.
I say no just because we don't need to expand our offerings, but it is good to know
in case that "special" (read:$$$) order walks in.

[Inkworks]

Yes, the silicone ink is pretty darned expensive too.....