Impressions - Team & Spirit Apparel - Spring 2015 - 7

hroughout the history of textile screen printing, the
inks developed for the textile media have diversified
into a wide variety for countless applications. Although
few know the history of the industry, the fi rst inks developed for
textiles were plastisols designed for athletic apparel - specifically
for football jerseys. From there, textile screen-printing inks have
evolved into the products available today.
Although considered a basic printing application, working with
athletic inks offers more challenges than many may think. Due to
the wide variety of athletic fabrics currently on the market, the textile screen printer must control variables and related processes to
consistently produce a quality product.
In this article, we will look at the characteristics of athletic
screen-printing inks, the fabrics that must be printed and the processes needed to ensure the desired results.

THE INK ITSELF

* Although considered a basic printing application,
working with athletic inks offers more challenges than
many consider. Due to the wide variety of athletic
fabrics currently on the market, the textile screen printer
must have his variables and printing processes controlled to consistently produce a quality product.

When the fi rst (athletic) plastisols were introduced in the early
'60s, they were less than user friendly. Since they were manufactured with an objective in mind (withstanding the abuse that a
number on a football jersey would take), no one had a vision of
the ink's performance parameters on the press. The fi rst inks were
much thicker and, thus, had poor general printability. When flash
units were soon developed, we found they had poor flashing characteristics as well.
Today, virtually every ink manufacturer offers athletic inks that
meet most of the performance parameters to make the product as
user friendly as possible. Those parameters include printability,
good flashing characteristics, opacity and build-up free for wet-onwet applications and bleed resistance. All of these parameters are
required for printers to produce a fi nished garment in a troublefree environment and in a minimal amount of time. The last thing
you need is an ink that slows you down.
Obviously, in the beginning, there only was one available ink
to address all athletic garments. Today, with the development of
a wide variety of high-performance charateristics and fabric contents, we have an equally wide variety of specialty inks designed
to address those specific needs. With that in mind, it is important
to continuously test any new products engineered for the specific
fabric on which you are printing.

WHITE ATHLETIC INKS
Today, we have specialty athletic inks for printing on polyester, nylon, nylon mesh and Lycra/spandex. The characteristics of
today's athletic inks that meet the industry's demands include:
* High opacity
* Superior bleed resistance
* Excellent flash characteristics
* Good matte-down characteristics (for printing on fleece)
* Matte fi nish (preferred by most)
* Excellent printability
* Good shearing characteristics
* Low after-flash tack
* Non-ghosting dye-blocking agents

A Supplement to Impressions

Spring 2015 * 7

Impressions - Team & Spirit Apparel - Spring 2015

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