How to heat set Screen Printing ink

When you print the clothing, you must heal the ink, or you will find that the clothing fades, cracks and disappears completely under some circumstances. Some inks are air dry, but common inks like plastisol and water-based inks need to be healed.

We are also asked, "what is the best screen printing equipment for textile ink? 'The simple answer is a tunnel dryer, but it can be costly particularly at start-up, so what are the options?

Hair dryers

Not hot enough, dry a water-based ink, but do not cure it.

Iron

Do not even heat and most do not get hot enough to heal the ink entirely. If you print t-shirts yourself and do not care that the ink gradually disappears, an iron is an alternative.

Heat weapons

You can cure the ink with a lot of patience and experience, but you possibly can scorch the clothes too carefully. Until printing the next color, you can use a heat pistol to dry the ink (the same job as a flash dryer).

Flash dryers

Used to dry the inks between prints when multicolor are printed, a flash dryer may be used to treat the ink, but it may take time and require management to ensure that the clothing does not burn. Works better for plastisol ink (which takes more cure) than water-based ink.

The hand curer can be used to dry the ink between prints when printing multi-color and comes with a temporary timer that encourages use. The hand curer utilize quartz elements, that heat and cool instantly to make the equipment energy efficient and safer than a conventional flash-dryer, to also be employed for ink curing. For exhibits and training courses, we use hand curators.

Heat presses

They are good to cure small quantities of fabric, most modern presses have timers that make handling easier. Heat presses are used for many applications such as vinyl transfer in most t shirt printing shops.

When a heat press is used to cure screen printing inks, a fat proof paper is to be placed on or a release paper moved before curing. You just need a very light pressure and you have to set the timer according to the ink. Can be used to curate textile inks for screen printing

Tunnel dryers

The perfect way to treat large quantities of clothing within a short but costly period of time. You will cure hundreds of clothes every hour. We manufacture them in all types and sizes depending on the production level and the size of the clothing used. When printing with water-based inks, you pick the longest dryer, so that the clothing is not put twice.

The majority of screen-printed clothing now made uses a form of ink called plastisol. It is basically a dense, but liquid, plastic compound which, depending on the ink used, completely cures to a strong condition between 250 and 325f.