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Drying and curing water based inks

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 1:12 am
by holymoley
Hi guys. I'm just putting together some equipment to start some printing, and would appreciate some advice around drying and curing water based inks. I would really like to learn using water based as I think that is what I want to use mainly. What I need to know please, is what are my options when it comes to drying and curing WB inks, including discharge inks? I'm thinking flash dryer for a few seconds then into a heat press, but I know there are a few different opinions. I can't spend thousands on a tunnel dryer, and would a very small one be sufficient for the job? I need to keep costs down, and am making some of the equipment myself, but drying and curing I need to spend a bit, even if its for second hand stuff. Also, there are some hybrid inks that I'm told don't dry so fast. Does anyone know if these are any good, please? Thanks for any answers.

Re: Drying and curing water based inks

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 6:22 pm
by Catspit Productions
For water based and discharge inks a forced air dryer is highly recommended. The deal is you need to evaporate the solvents out of water based ink before they are heat set for wash safeness. In the case of dicharge you will need the forced air heat to activate the discharge reaction and then it needs to be fully heat set if there is any pigments in it.

Generally speaking water based inks heat set at about 250 to 275 degrees F but you should always check with the specific ink you're using. So without a forced air dryer working with water based ink only you would need to print them and then lay them all out flat to dry by evaporation. Then you could send them through a belt dryer or a heat press. Discharge would really need a forced air flash cure on press at least to work easily. Otherwise it will take much longer for the discharge to work being tacked to the pallet. If it's a 1 color discharge print then you might be able to pull it off pallet and use a heat gun or blow dryer that gets very hot to activate the discharge ink.

Water based and discharge inks will be more difficult to learn with as a beginner but water based inks do not necessarily need the more expensive drying equipment.

Re: Drying and curing water based inks

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 10:50 pm
by holymoley
Wow. Thank you so much for such an awesome reply. I couldn't have asked for a more direct and thorough answer. My next job, of course is to source a good forced air flash dryer. I am in the UK, so not sure if what I can get here will match up with what's available to you over the river, but do you have any recommendations please? Thanks again. Awesome.

Re: Drying and curing water based inks

Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 10:54 am
by Catspit Productions
You're very welcome. Check out CPS and Screen Print Direct in the UK. They offer MacDermid AutoType and CPS products in the UK. I am a dealer for them but they are based in the UK so you should be able to buy direct in the UK.

http://www.screenprintdirect.co.uk/

http://www.cps.eu/

Tell them Catspit sent you ;)