Impresssions - March 2017 - 31

The print shown here is
a flat, four-color design,
printed through 158 / 62
mesh screens with a foil
adhesive as a special effect.

When venturing from plastisol to a water-based ink
system, you should ensure the emulsion is waterresistant and intended for water-based applications.

Flat-color prints can be done through
mesh counts as low as 125/49, if desired.
However, considering the performance
parameters of today's discharge inks, you
easily can print through 180/71 or higher
mesh counts.
As you become accustomed to working with water-based discharge inks,
you can develop your techniques for
higher-end printing with halftones for photographic effects.

Screen Preparation
Mesh selection is critical to successful print
production. The advancements made in today's water-based discharge systems allow
for halftone printing, and even printing
through finer mesh counts, with excellent
results. When working with flat color and
minimal detail, you can use a 110-125 mesh
count to allow for easy printing and vibrant color.
When venturing from plastisol to a
water-based ink system, you should ensure
the emulsion is water-resistant and intended
for water-based applications. There are many
photo emulsions on the market that are designed for both plastisol and water-based
applications, which eliminates the need for
carrying multiple emulsions in your shop.
There also are options to ensure you
achieve the desired endurance from the
screen. Stencil-hardening agents can act
as an insurance policy to reinforce the stencil's water-resistance. Just remember to do
your homework, as there are products that
are both reclaimable and non-reclaimable.
Unfortunately, if you use non-reclaimable
stencil-hardening agents, you will have to
destroy and restretch the screen once the
production run is complete. Reclaimable
hardening agents will ensure a screen's endurance and allow it to be reused.
Post-exposing the screen after the
stencil-development process also will help
ensure the stencil's maximum durability.

Garment Selection
One of the trickiest variables of the dischargeprinting process is knowing which garments

This is a high-end 65 line,
photographic reproduction printed
through 355 / 120 mesh screens.
Photo courtesy of Matsui Color.

will and will not perform well with the required inks. First, you must print exclusively on 100% cotton/reactive-dyed garments. Fortunately, most of the 100%
cotton garments on the market today fit this criteria. Pigment-dyed garments, or
those treated with direct dyes, will not perform nearly as well.
Once garments have been selected, you must know which colors within that garment line will and will not discharge well. Different 100% reactive-dyed garments
will perform differently based on color. For example, black reactive-dyed garments
typically will discharge with better results than a reactive-dyed garment in the
royal-to-blue shade range. This is because not all reactive dyes discharge equally.
Because of this, you should always pretest - regardless of garment color -

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Impresssions - March 2017

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