think. make. do. SCREEN PRINTING PRODUCTION Like this article? Read more screen-printing articles at impressionsmag.com/screenprinting. The Perfect Coating Follow these tips on how to match your emulsion to your ink system. BY RICK DAVIS AND DAVE DENNINGS, CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Proper emulsion coating on screens is an important part of the screenprinting process. THE CONSUMER AND RETAILERS of today's market have driven the textile embellishment industry to research and develop new technologies to meet demands. Those demands include more environmentally friendly inks and prints with a softer hand than that which traditional plastisol inks can provide. This situation has many printers researching the new ink technologies, which also have been produced through those same demands. The ink lines offered P.54 today are a combination of both new and old technologies. Let's take a look Water-Based Inks: These inks have been used from the earliest days of apparel embellishment and were a primary printing media long before the advent of plastisol inks. Today's high-end water-based ink formulations are more user friendly than their earlier counterparts, with greater performance characteristics from the standpoint of in-screen drying and overall ease of use. They I M P R E S S I O N S M A G . C O M MARCH 2016 also have improved with regard to vibrancy and laundering. Waterbased inks recently have become more popular for their soft-hand characteristics and PVC-free composition. Water-Based Discharge: These inks are similar to standard water-based inks, but include a discharge additive that allows for the removal of the reactive dye in 100% cotton fabrics. The active ingredient in conventional discharge inks is Zinc Formaldehyde Sulfoxylate (ZFS). High-Solids Acrylics (HS-As): These represent the newest innovation to water-based textile screen printing inks that allow vibrant prints on dark and light garments. It is important to remember that these inks, as well as standard water-based inks, require proper curing parameters (forced-air dryers) to drive the water content from the ink film to cure it. Plastisol Inks: The long-time standard for apparel printing, these inks previously contained phthalates, which were deemed harmful. Those products have been replaced and identified as safe via the Consumer Products Safety Information Act (CPSIA). Although some printers have seen product performance issues due to these changes, plastisol as an industryhttp://www.impressionsmag.com/screenprinting http://www.IMPRESSIONSMAG.COM