Glow in Dark Additive

[Palmetto7]

Customer is requesting glow in the dark print on black 100% cotton tees. He wants them ASAP and willing to pay for rush. I have some  glow in the dark additive powder we got from a printer we bought out. Anyone ever added the powder to white plastisol ? Read somewhere that you can add three parts ink to one part glow additive and should make them glow quite nicely. I am planning to underbase with white pf then print glow on top. I appreciate insight from all that have done something similar.

[Frog]

All glow that I have ever used was powder in a clear base.
With pigmented ink as the medium, you are going to encapsulate and cover all of the particles, and lose the glow.

[Colin]

As Frog said.  Once you add an opaque pigment to any glow ink, the opaque ink/pigment will cover the phosphorescent up and GREATLY diminish the glow.  Conversely a transparent pigment like a flourescent will not cover up the glow nearly as much.

With that said, I would strongly recomend printing your glow ink over a nice bright white base.

Add the glow pigment at 30%-50% by weight (depends on the clear ink you are adding it to).  Stir thoroughly and print as normal.

[Frog]

If you're going to add "tint", go with a translucent Fluorescent at up to 10%, right, Colin?

And by volume, 1.5 pounds of the glow powder to a quart of clear.

[Colin]

Honestly Frog, it really depends on what the customer expects.  The more glow pigment you add, the more of the "ghost green" color you will see come through.  As for over pigmenting a flourescent ink; most have 10%-20% pigment already.  And 20% is being generous for most of them.  So an add of 10%-20% by weight should be fine. 

Always test the finished ink for cure and crocking before production.

As a side note:  Not all clear inks have the same pigment loading capabilities.  Some clears can hold twice as much pigment as others.  So be carefull and ALLWAYS test your ink before production.

[Frog]

For many years, even before the advent of Soft Hand bases, it was always Union's Ultrasoft Clear for Metallic, and my numbers reflect this.(Ultrasoft Fluorescent as well)
I should have been more specific   

[Palmetto7]

Thank you Frog and Colin. I ordered the ultrasoft clear and will print it over a bright white base. I will update with final results.
Thanks again.

[tonypep]

There are actually colored phosphorous pigment powders they just aren't legal to use (at least for apparel decoration in the US). Yes there's another story behind this. Perhaps later. Gotta fire up the plant.
tp

[Frog]

They can really vary in glow length as well.
Here's some folks who have quite a selection

[tonypep]

They can really vary in glow length as well.
Here's some folks who have quite a selection

Andy this looks like the stuff I was formulating for a large Brazil manufacturer about twelve ys ago. By the looks of the MSDS and description while you might want to play around with it but that stuff is wicked expensive. Also gloves, goggles, and respirators were necessary due to the heavy metals such as zinc being airborne. Turned out the Brazil company was slipping the powders in illegally on container ships. The products were not yet regulated. I was incorporating into clear plastisol. One day they showed up and scooped up all the stuff and disappeared.
Needless to say I never got paid!

[Frog]

Gotta fire up the plant.
tp

We call it herb, and that's usually put off until the end of the day (except for the tie dyers we were discussing a few days ago.