So many screen printing shops have a hard time working with water based inks.
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It’s not that water based inks are difficult. It’s that most shops don’t know where to start, since they’ve used plastisol ink for so long and may have learned to print with it. Spending a little time to do some R&D on your screen printing inks can yield huge returns.
Plastisol ink is just polyvinyl chloride (PVC, the same stuff common pipes are made of) and liquid plastic.
It’s the most common ink you’ll see in any screen printing shop. Why? Because it’s cheap, readily available, durable, and generally easy to work with.
Leave it on your screens with no problem. Leave it on a shelf forever and use it years later. Make sure it’s cured correctly, and it can last a hundred washes.
Sounds great, right? It mostly is.
Why would screen printers want to invest time and energy into learning water based inks when plastisol is so easy, cheap, and permanent?
Because water based inks have some real advantages that make them appealing to customers and printers: they feel better, they’re better for the environment, and they unlock some powerful printing capabilities in your shop (plus they just look amazing).
This is a simple truth: a good water based print feels better than a plastisol print.
While you can make a soft plastisol print, a water based print can often be nearly as soft as the t-shirt itself.
This means customers that love soft prints will almost always want water based inks.
Compared to plastisol, some water based inks use fewer toxins and petroleum products.
While this isn’t always the case (and can be a common misconception), water based inks are generally considered better for the environment among industry experts.
The reasons include water based inks being made with fewer volatile and toxic chemicals, requiring less of a carbon footprint to produce, and producing less waste that goes to the drain compared to plastisol.
While plastisol tends to last for a hundred washes and then begin to fade, crinkle, and even chip off the garment (think of a really old t-shirt you might have) – water based inks can actually last much longer.
This is because water based inks can actually become part of the garment. Plastisol simply sits on top of the garment! Water based inks (since they’re water based) leave behind pigments.
These pigments can become part of the fabric itself and last as long as the garment lasts.
While you can achieve high detail prints with plastisol, water based inks can be made so thin that they’re able to be used on extremely high mesh counts.
This means shops like Night Owls Print and Printed Threads, which print high-detail water based art, can achieve photorealistic results and microscopic details.
If you’ve ever worn a t-shirt with a large plastisol print, you know that plastisol ink simply doesn’t “breathe”.
Most water based inks don’t feel like this. Water based inks typically able to allow air to pass through, since the pigments are embedded within the fibers of the garment.
While Pantone matching water based inks was a problem in the past, it’s now something that highly technical shops can do effortlessly.
There’s some apprehension about water based inks: won’t they be less vibrant than plastisol? The answer to that question is no. Water based inks do not sacrifice quality or color.
Everyone in the industry likes to fight over which screen printing ink is best.
It’s really like asking which pizza is best. (It’s Pequod’s, though. I may have to watch my back for a while.)
The truth is very simple.
The best water based ink fulfills two criteria:
If the ink comes from a supplier you trust and it works for you, then it’s good ink. Don’t worry about the other noise.
To find the inks you like, prioritize testing different inks. You can probably get samples from sales reps. Learn from the screen printing process and experiment with your techniques. Remain open to surprises and changes in your process – it’s worth the investment in time and energy.
Water based inks are literally any ink that has water as its key component.
That tends to throw people off!
Traditional water based and discharge inks don’t sit on top of the shirt like plastisol does. Instead, the actual fibers of the shirt are altered. This makes for a long-lasting print that’s as soft as the shirt is. Not all water based inks work this way, though…acrylic inks are a notable exception.
So here’s a breakdown of the different water based inks.
With a runny, almost liquid consistency, water based ink alters the garment’s fibers. It has a tremendously soft hand feel. Because of the high water content of the ink, it must stay wet during printing.
A fluid, but slightly more viscous, consistency than traditional water based ink. Discharge inks are a powerful tool. They work by using an activator to bleach out the existing colors on the shirt. This means you can reliably print vibrant colors even on dark garments by using discharge inks as an underbase layer.
With acrylic particles added, this type of water based ink has a thicker, plastisol-like consistency. It does not actually alter the fibers of the garment. Acrylic inks come from the consumer need for a plastisol-like water based ink. It doesn’t need quite as careful management on the screen as other water based inks.
Acrylic inks are becoming more popular thanks to the growth of digital hybrid printing (also known as “the giant new machines that cost as much as a small house”). Lots of digital printing machines print on top of a tradition screen printed underbase – and most require some type of acrylic ink.
Plastisol is incredibly easy to use. It won’t dry up sitting on a screen and will never puddle. So why should you switch to water based ink?
This is simply the most common issue with water based inks, particularly with top-coat water based inks like acrylic ink.
In the fine art world, the simplest solution is to add a retarder: glycerine would be added to ink to keep it from drying.
There are three solutions for slowing down the drying process with your water based inks:
Check with your ink manufacturer to see what kind of retarder they suggest.
A water based ink retarder slows the drying time and increases the “open time”. Some manufacturers offer multiple additives that alter how the ink behaves. In my experience, using the recommended retarder combined with a lubricant is the best way to keep ink flowing and slow the drying process in the screen.
I bet you didn’t think you’d need a reptile fogger.
Here’s a brilliant hack to keep your water based inks from drying up in the screen:
Use a reptile fogger to keep your ink wet!
These cost about $50 when they’re new, and you get a 1 liter system that sprays a cool mist. It’s attached to a hose, so you can move the hose and clip it wherever you’d like to keep the fog directed at your screen.
Here’s an example:
Be sure to use distilled water in your fogger to keep contaminants out!
All jokes aside, throughout the years I’ve learned that coating your screens with the ink manufacturer’s recommended lubricant is critical.
Before any water based ink goes on your screen, apply lubricant with a clean cloth and rub it liberally into the open areas of your image. Use a little water to help spread the lubricant completely through the mesh, then wipe it clean.
By penetrating the entire mesh with lubricant, you slow down drying and make printing much smoother.
For more water based pigment inkinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.
This is the other big problem shops run into when they start printing with water based ink: their screens start breaking down. Water is the universal solvent, after all.
Emulsion formulation is key to keeping your screens from breaking down. Emulsions have different solid content levels, different levels of durability when exposed to different inks, different exposure properties and so on. So how do you choose?
Virtually every supplier for garment decorators has a good emulsion that you can use. You may have to alter your emulsions to get the toughness you’ll need.
When in doubt, go with Diazo for the best durability when screen printing with water based ink. Ideally, you mix powder Diazo blended with water into the emulsion. This can create a powerful emulsion that is more durable than standard photopolymer emulsions that are ready for use out of the bucket.
Proper exposure leads to optimum cross-linking. Cross-linking is when the semi-solids in your emulsion become a solid through reaction with UV light. Take the time and invest in getting exposure 100% right.
Always post expose.
Here, I’m going to say it louder: ALWAYS POST EXPOSE!
This is a super simple step that so many shops overlook or think isn’t necessary.
After you’ve exposed your screen and it’s dried off, take your screen and expose it to more light. Turn off your exposure unit’s vacuum function and expose the screen ink-side down (opposite of how you normally expose screens). You can even just expose it to sunlight for a minute or so.
The point is to further harden the ink-side of the screen. This is a very easy way to improve the durability of your screens.
Water based inks are an opportunity to offer your customers the longest-lasting and softest custom shirt possible. It’s a screen printing technique that adds value and impresses clients.
Too many screen printing businesses are afraid to experiment with new techniques – but water based inks are a fantastic opportunity to do something new.
Now that you know where to start, and are armed with some practical tips, go find out how you can utilize water based inks in your shop.
t screen-printing shop Night Owls, the crew only uses water-based inks. “We chose to move to an ‘ink solution’ that offers a higher-quality print for us,” says Eric Solomon, owner of the Houston-based shop.
“We love the way water-based ink works, we love the way it elevates our printing quality and the way it’s helped us elevate our craft.”
– Eric Solomon, owner of the Night Owls
Although design quality is always a huge factor in the printing process, another growing factor for some is how to print in a more environment friendly way. To be more “green,” do you need to move away from the traditional plastisols and toward water-based inks?
Colette Wilhelm, owner of Contract Impressions in Cape Coral, FL, says that while water-based inks are touted as being better for the environment, they’re in fact, acrylic based. “However, they can give customers the great designs they crave, with a better ‘feel’ to the shirt,” she says. “We also recommend water-based inks for clients when it helps enforce their brands’ eco-friendly messaging.”
Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of water-based screen-printing inks, along with some things to consider.
The screen printers who learn how to use water-based inks for vibrant, full-color and long-lasting designs love the versatility of the ink and its results. Here are seven reasons why they choose water-based over plastisols.
One of the biggest criticisms of the printing industry is that the byproducts of the screen-printing process result in chemical-laden waste that you need to dispose of properly. By making the switch to water-based inks, you can reduce the impact of this waste because the inks themselves are made of more naturally occurring substances.
Plastic-based inks, by contrast, use fossil fuels, such as petroleum, to manufacture, which adds to their initial less-than-ideal environmental impact. However, water-based inks, as the name implies, are water-soluble. This means that you don’t need harsh chemicals to clean them up.
Tip: If you don’t use water-based inks correctly, they can actually be damaging to the environment, so talk to your manufacturer about how to print with them and clean up in a more sustainable way.
A huge, enduring trend in apparel is the” vintage” or “retro” look and feel in garments and decoration. That translates into a worn-in vibe, with a “soft hand”—where you run your hand over the print on a shirt and won’t feel the ink. You can achieve this with water-based inks more easily than with plastisol.
“My favorite reasons for using water-based ink are that it creates a softer, smoother and all-around more comfortable print,” Solomon says.
Even better, for many designs, after one wash, you can’t even feel the water-based inks at all. “When I print with water-based inks on white garments, you’re essentially re-dyeing the fabric, so there’s no hand,” Wilhelm says. “And remember, on dark garments, you’ll need to use multiple layers of underbase to achieve an opaque color.”
Yet, even with multiple layers of underbase, water-based inks still have less of a hand on the shirt than plastisol does. “This can be very beneficial to certain markets, such as for athletic and team wear clients,” Wilhelm says.
One great benefit of water-based inks is that they’re easier to mix. Your mixing systems can make just about any color you need, while also letting you control the color’s opacity.
“Water-based inks use liquid pigments, making them easier to measure and mix for color-matching purposes,”Wilhelm says. “They’re also easier to clean out of the screen, as you can just rinse them with water.”
“Water-based give you vibrant, full-color designs in high detail on apparel,” Wilhelm says. And that’s great because your customers expect a sharp, bright-colored print that doesn’t bleed or look faded around the edges. When they see a virtual mockup, they expect to have the final print look as close to what they originally saw on-screen, as possible.
Since water-based inks soak into the fabric instead of being printed on top of it, they tend to last longer. Screen printers report that plastisol-inked designs tend to crack and fade over time, as washing and wearing chips away at the ink.
This includes low-solids, high solids, discharge, reflective, polyurethane and more. “I also love the versatility water-based inks offer, since there are so many different things you can do to your ink, to elevate your print,” Solomon says.
Tip: If you’re new to water-based inks, you can reach out to a vendor like Ryonet or Atlas Screen Supply for a crash course in the different types of inks available.
Many customers today are interested in supporting environmentally conscious companies. By making the switch over to water-based inks and more eco-friendly apparel, a decorator can promote the environmental benefits of these inks and increase more brand loyalty from “green” customers.
“There’s a market perception that these inks are better for the environment, which is beneficial to certain shops and certain clients,” Wilhelm says. “This can be a major sales point.”
Solomon points out that to print water-based inks correctly, you first need to understand the science and physics of screen printing. “When you’re just learning, having the ink evaporate or dry on the press is a tricky hump to get over,” he says. “But all of these considerations lead to positives once you master them.”
Basically, if you’re using water-based ink, then you’ll have to specially coat your screens so they can be used with this type of ink. This means they’ll need to be post-exposed, or you’ll have to use a special cleaner for water-based inks. (These cleaners are harder to reclaim and will take longer to work.)
“The emulsion remover uses water as a carrier to help it permeate the emulsion layer, making the screen resistant to water ensures that the emulsion remover will take longer to work,” Wilhelm says.
Most water-based inks won’t air dry naturally and those that do aren’t of the best quality for professional printing. In order to dry quickly, you’ll need to add other chemicals to the ink. Unfortunately, this means that the ink will only be good for less than 12 hours. So, once you add the chemicals, you need to either use the rest of the ink, or lose it.
“There’s a ‘magic trio’ we use when printing with water-based inks,” Wilhelm says. “That trio is fixer, retarder and reducer.” Fixer helps the ink to adhere to the fibers of the fabric, retarder slows the drying of ink in screens, and reducer reduces the viscosity of the ink, so it flows through the screen better.
“Every shop will need to determine for themselves what percentage of each additive needs to be used in conjunction with water-based inks,” Wilhelm says. “Those percentages will be based on that shop facility’s unique temperature, humidity and production levels.”
Another consideration with water-based inks is that you’ll need to tend to the ink, so it doesn’t dry in the screens. If you fail to do this, you could end up with ruined screens, clogged up with dried ink.
“Water-based inks cure by removing all the water from the ink, leaving behind the colors,” Wilhelm says. “In a dry shop, you may have problems keeping the ink wet in your screens. Remember, if the ink does dry on the screen, you won’t be able to use the blocked screen until you reclaim it.”
Solomon also notes that water-based inks typically require larger equipment to print and cure correctly, which can get expensive.
Another consideration is that water-based inks tend to be stickier than plastisols. Because of this, they may stick to the back of the next screen and pull up the ink in the process. “Your design won’t look great, as you’ll have a reduction in color and increased opacity,” Wilhelm says.
To fix this, you’ll have to do more flashing to keep the print from peeling. The stickiness may also require more screens or extra revolutions on the press. All of this can increase the production time and is dependent on your shop’s press setup.
“However, it’s important to remember that water-based inks aren’t as tricky as you might think,” Solomon says. “You need to shift your mindset though and think about your projects in a different capacity. Like any other tool in your shop, water-based ink will show where you have flaws in your process. This will make you a better printer, if you put in the time and effort.”
In general, it’s difficult to exactly color match water-based inks to Pantone (PMS) colors, due to the inks’ opacity. However, using certain additives can make the process easier. Unfortunately, that’ll also make the inks less eco-friendly.
Experienced printers say skilled color matching comes down to experience. “PMS color matches are definitely possible with water-based inks, but you need to test, test, test,” Solomon says.
“Be aware that many of the ‘recipes’ for water-based inks aren’t verified to be a perfect color match, even on white,” Wilhelm. “That’s why a strong understanding of color theory is required to mix water- based inks.”
You must be mindful of your emulsions when using water-based inks. It’s imperative that you use a water-resistant type as these inks will destroy other emulsions (and ultimately your stencil).
“Water-based inks destroy standard emulsions with the friction of the squeegee,” Wilhelm says. “Use an emulsion specially designed for water-based inks, or add diazo to your existing emulsion, and post expose to ensure you’re using a stencil strong enough to stand up to the ink.”
None of these are difficult steps, but if you primarily use plastisol, you can easily miss one. “Then, you might ruin an entire order when the screen breaks down mid-production run,” Wilhelm says.
As we said earlier, water-based inks aren’t just made from water. They also contain solvents and pigments, as well as potentially dangerous chemicals. Because of these additives, you can’t simply pour the inks down your sink to dispose of them. They must be treated as hazardous chemicals.
“Between the amount of solid acrylics in the ink itself and the addition of the additives to give the best results, these inks are really no better for the environment than plastisol inks are,” Wilhelm says.
It’s certainly important for all businesses to begin looking at their environmental impact. One way that apparel decorators have been encouraged to help is to make the switch to water-based inks. Although this is certainly a viable option used by many shops, it does come with some considerations you must take into account before making a switch.
“I make sure my clients understand the pros and cons of all of the ink types,” Wilhelm says, “so that as they communicate with their end-user clients, they have the ability to direct them to the best ink for their specific needs.”
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