multicolor wow discharge

[ericheartsu]

Is there a trick to avoiding the zombie skin on a WOW discharge print?

Right now we are printing a three color print on an Anvil 980 (blue, red, white, in that order), and the only thing we can do to avoid the zombie skin forming, is by flashing each color, which in my opinion defeats part of the purpose of discharge ink.

So any tips? our off contact is pretty standard, all meshes are around 40n (36-40) at least, and all three prints are being done on 160 mesh.

[tonypep]

We never ever ever flash DC and do it all day long. Can you give specs so we can chime in with some help? I've never experienced what you are describing.

[ericheartsu]

in the past we've used matsui white, and sericol colors. We just changed to CCI dwhite.

But what seems to happen is, printing wet on wet, the colors start sticking to the screen of the next color, and eventually form a weird skin, that gets pulled off on the shirt, and can cause slight discoloration where the design is

[Homer]

in the past we've used matsui white, and sericol colors. We just changed to CCI dwhite.

But what seems to happen is, printing wet on wet, the colors start sticking to the screen of the next color, and eventually form a weird skin, that gets pulled off on the shirt, and can cause slight discoloration where the design is

we are in the same boat, we used to use matsui HO white, I believe, and I have my first gallon of CCI here. We found it was underexposed screens causing most of this issue...is it like flaking off onto the shirt as well? not really an orange peel but a really funky texture?

I think adding a bit of retarder or water helped as well, I have to go check my notebook. I keep notes on everything

[tonypep]

Hmm well make sure you are post exposing then. Also what brand. Matsui is OK but I don't have any of it here. Trying to eliminate the variables. Squeegee parameters?

[ericheartsu]

homer, that's exactly whats happening, almost like a weird gummy residue.

We have changed our system a little bit too, since it happened last, but we are doing another job soon, So i wanted to check and see if there was something we could do.

I'll try post exposing for longer, and report back!

[tonypep]

Been doing it for more than 25 ys and have never seen this. Somethings afoot!

[Homer]

I would grab some of that CCI hardener and put it on the screens, that way if you are still underexposed, you should be safe...er....what emulsion are you using? We are using aquasol hvp and currently trying the CCI TX-Discharge, pretty much the same stuff....


now that I think about, when this happened to us last, we had our screens coated for plastisol, not discharge so we may have been putting down too much ink...

[head north]

I've had this happen too.  Happened while using Aquasol HVP w/ hardener.  Only happened after we had been running for a while and stopped to make some adjustments - seemed to be the ink on the back of the screens not staying wet?  Now that Homer mentioned it maybe too much ink lay down too.

[ericheartsu]

what is the appropriate way to coat the discharge screens?

we are using kiwo discharge emulsion, and when we hvae 100+ runs we typically throw the CCI semi hardner on the screen

[tonypep]

We do 2 over two sharp side  and post expose. 70 Duro sharp sqg. Remember your driving it in not laying it on

[Homer]

for us it's 1/1, we want the WB ink IN the shirt, not ON the shirt, like you would with plastisol....so a thinner stencil...

maybe some of the WB guys can chime in here but that is my understanding.

oop, looks like TP beat me....

I thought I read on here post exposing was really only for hardening the emulsion used for blockout?

[ebscreen]

You want them screens dry and hard. The dryer and harder the better in terms of water resistance
and not degrading. (not so much in terms of reclaiming)

Can't wait until the sun comes out and we can post-expose for free and easy again.

[Inkworks]

Lol, Zombie Skin, good to know it has a name...

I've found misting the backside of the screens with a bit of water prior to running helps. Maybe the emulsion absorbs a bit of water from the ink and dries it out enough to cause it to skin and then release onto subsequent prints?

[IntegrityShirts]

Are you guys putting hardener on the bottoms of the screens as well?  I've never had issues if I put hardener on both sides.