Plasticharge

[ApeShirt]

I did my first plasticharge print the other day. It was a personal job so I figured why not give it a try. It looked pretty good but after a couple washes it seemed to fade. Is that normal? Also, when doing a white underbase is it necessary to flash it?

[ApeShirt]

Anybody?

[Catspit Productions]

LOL... I assume you are using some plastisol discharge ink. I have never used that.

[ApeShirt]

That's exactly what I'm using. I guess I'm the only one here that is trying it, lol. It's pretty awesome. I wonder if maybe my ratio was off a little bit when I mixed everything. I have no idea if that could be why it faded slightly after a couple washes. It's kind of a pain so I don't want to keep experimenting without some direction.

[drew]

I haven't tried it due to needing a forced air dryer or having to cure it for 2+ minutes per shirt. I would love to try it when I can afford a conveyor w forced air. I heard you need to add an activator to it at 5-6% by volume but you can add up to 10%. That may help, or 'curing' a little longer? I think it basically turns plastisol into something similar to water base? It sounds interesting but seems like a lot of work. Lol.

[Catspit Productions]

Drew makes a good point there with the ratio up to 10%. That is the case with most discharge inks. 6% to 10% discharge activator by volume. And make sure it is fully discharged as well. You may need to experiment with a few rags to see how far it will discharge.

Forced air is pretty much a necessity with discharge.

[ApeShirt]

I mixed 6%. I don't have a forced air dryer. I did, however, read several times that one is not necessary. They recommend it, but say as long as you either have a long dwell time or even run it through the dryer a couple times than it'll work just as well. And to not cure it too fast.

[Catspit Productions]

Look at it this way, it’s the same concept with water based inks but with discharge the desire for the forced air is greater.

With standard water base ink a forced air unit is used so we can take the shirts off the press and go straight into the oven. If you do not have forced air it is recommended that you let them air dry before running them through a dryer without forced air. The reason being is that you need all the moisture to evaporate before the heat setting can really take place and make the ink wash safe. If the shirt is run through a dryer without forced air it will need to be run very, very slow or it will not set the ink properly. Or like you said you can run them through a few times which adds more labor time. You can get away with a flash cure on press that does not have forced air if your belt dryer does.

With discharge it is a little different in that there is a chemical reaction occurring when activated by heat. Here we still need to evaporate the moisture out of the ink but we also need to make sure the heat penetrates the ink and makes it fully discharge. The forced air dryer ensures this with ease and consistency. The forced air dries the ink, activates the discharge and heat sets any pigments involved. A dryer with forced air will cure more shirts faster than one without and there will be no worries as to the quality of the discharge or the cure.

So in my opinion for discharge forced air is a necessity. Of course many people do it without forced air in different ways and that may be fine for some production levels but when you want to maximize your print quality and minimize time the forced air dryer will do that with water based and discharge inks.

[BoydRiver]

Was the item, i presume a tshirt, a dischargeable one. Not all textiles can be discharged properly as a result of the manufacturing process.

I understand that you need to confirm that the t is dischargable with your supplier before you buy and they will in turn point out the right item to use.

[Catspit Productions]

Was the item, i presume a tshirt, a dischargeable one. Not all textiles can be discharged properly as a result of the manufacturing process.

I understand that you need to confirm that the t is dischargable with your supplier before you buy and they will in turn point out the right item to use.

That's true. Different garment brands will discharge differently giving varied results. As long as the shirt is able to be bleached, sort to speak, it should work but the color of the white you get can vary depending on the brand or even the dye job.