Impressions - March 2014 - 36

Water-based
ink has a soft
feel when printed, is
easy to clean up with
water and provides
a great background
print for additional
special effects.

One quick test print will show the difference in feel between
water-based and standard plastisol prints. You can use such prints as
sales presentations to clients to help justify a price increase for waterbased or modified inks.

There are specific qualities and limitations of water-based inks for screen printing.
Decorators should consider these factors if
they haven't used water-based inks before.
For example, these inks enable soft prints,
are easy to clean up with water and provide
great background prints for additional special effects, like glitter, rhinestones, etc.
The limitations of water-based inks include: more difficult handling and printing (tends to dry into small areas in the
screen); lower opacity, so it doesn't cover
well on dark garments unless it is printed
using a discharge agent (discharge ink
will bleach out the dye in some dark garments); and it works best on garments
with cotton content to absorb it into the
fibers. Some special elements are needed
to print water-based inks well, including
hardener (needed for the screen emulsion
to keep the water in the ink from breaking down the stencil) and different ink
modifiers (for helping to keep ink from
drying into the screen or for creating a
discharge print).
On lighter weight dark garments, it is
crucial that water-based discharge prints
be tested and that the manufacturer has
approved the product for discharge. Otherwise, the dye in the garments may not release or may produce totally unpredictable
results. The more treatments that have
been applied to a garment, the less likely
it is the fabric will be discharge friendly.
36

Impressions | March 2014

For this reason, it sometimes is preferable
to print a garment prior to doing an additional fabric treatment if the discharge
process is needed.
A final note on water-based inks: Synthetic fibers in the garments typically will
not work well with a water-based print, as
the fabric cannot absorb the ink. On garments that are composed of nylon, Lycra
or spandex, it is best to research and find a
better process like heat pressing or printing the garments with ink that will properly adhere to the fabric.
For garments with synthetic fibers, one
alternative is to use an ink additive with
traditional plastisols that makes them less
opaque and results in a softer surface. Your
ink supplier will have information on different additives that you can combine
with your current stock. Depending on
your current ink's composition, you may
need a modifier or a different ink base to
get the desired look and feel.
It is important to test the modified inks
to ensure they have the expected look,
feel and durability. A modified standard
ink sometimes will become significantly
different in opacity and not be nearly as
durable after multiple washes. So make
sure you can do the right amount of modification that will provide the desired effect
without adversely affecting the final products. The adjusted ink also will tend to
be lower in viscosity, so you may need to

use a higher mesh count or increase print
speed to avoid bleeding.

PRINTING CHALLENGES
There are exceptions to every rule in
printing. It wouldn't be surprising to find
heavy prints on lighter weight garments in
a retail setting, even though they would be
uncomfortable. If you're a custom decorator, the concern is that you are trying to
build a long-term relationship with a client, so each order is a reflection of you. A
retailer only has to sell one garment to an
individual client, but the custom decorator
has an ongoing dialog with a customer who
will have a volume of printed garments.
In the volume environment, if a garment is printed with a heavy, uncomfortable print, it will result in negative feedback for future orders. Sometimes a special
effect, such as glitter, foil or a combination
of water-based ink and a heat press application, will provide a such a suitable look
that a client will shrug off the uncomfortable elements due to excitement over the
bling. In these exceptions, it always is important to remember that such is the client's choice. He just has to be willing to
accept the overall feel.
The majority of customers always will
gravitate toward comfortable garments for
repeat wear. A great way to control the feel
of a print on lightweight garments is to
have a clear standard of printing on these
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Impressions - March 2014

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