Curing White Ink

Here you can discuss any issues related to working with water based screen printing inks. This would include curing, heat setting, mixing colors, additives, brands, usages and much more.

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Wisconsin Printer
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2016 8:45 am

Curing White Ink

Post by Wisconsin Printer »

My company has almost a 2 year old Electric Dryer (Firefly). The software is up to date, but now we are having an issue with our White Ink (One Stroke and International). All other colors are curing just fine, just not the White. The dryer is set at 300 degrees and speed at 50sec. Even with a Low Cure Additive mixed in. We have had several orders come back because the ink is flaking or cracking. Multiple tests have been conducted with print sequences, temperatures and garments. Still all have the same result in cracking. Anyone have any insight that would help out?
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Catspit Productions
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Re: Curing White Ink

Post by Catspit Productions »

If this is a new issue that just occurred out of no where, I would call One Stroke or International Coatings and speak with them to see if they had any batch problems. That has been known to happen. Very odd indeed with 2 different inks though. Are they mixed together? And with the low cure additive?

I really have no clue. Perhaps we would have to maybe examine the dryer more closely to see if the panels are really outputting heat as they should evenly across the belt area. I admit if there isn't an issue with the ink, then that's an odd thing to have occur all of a sudden. Have there been any other recent changes in the area where the dryer is? Humidity? Drafts? Ventilation? I mean it's like guessing since everything but the white is curing.

White plastisol ink is always the hardest to cure so many things could affect the cure. But you have a variable of 2 different brands of inks here so can one be a bad batch?

"Multiple tests have been conducted with print sequences, temperatures and garments. Still all have the same result in cracking." - Are you using a different low cure additive? Has anything at all changed with how you handle or mix the ink?

Be sure to let us know what you find is the problem when you solve it if we can't help out here.
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
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Wisconsin Printer
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2016 8:45 am

Re: Curing White Ink

Post by Wisconsin Printer »

Come to find out from the company the dryer came from, the Flash bulb rack on the inside of the dryer was out of place by a 1/2 inch. Then the bulbs were blocking the cameras in the dryer to be blocked from seeing and being able to read the garment/ink temperature accurately. All this was from cleaning the machine and not being careful putting it back together, not to jar anything around.
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Catspit Productions
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Re: Curing White Ink

Post by Catspit Productions »

Ah well there we go. The dryer was the culprit. If you had mentioned you cleaned it recently I would definitely have started there.

But I did mention to take a closer look at the dryer in my reply....hehe. Maybe that helped out anyway ;)

Thanks for updating us and letting us know what happened. Excellent info for others to know about.
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
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