Plastisol Bases And Additives

Eco Bond Catalyst when added to plastisol inks will increase their hardness and help them to adhere to Nylon and other difficult Fabrics. To improve adhesion to the nylon material, wipe the print area first with a Ketone soaked rag to remove any water proof coating. Allow 24 hours before testing print adhesion and durability. The Eco Bond can also be added to aid curing of plastisol inks when printing onto a temperature sensitive substrate. Once the addition of Eco bond is made to the ink, the ink will remain usable for 8 hours before going hard. The catalysed ink cannot be left in the mesh over night. Recommended addition is 3 – 10%.

Flexi Base when added to Eco-Plas inks will greatly increase the stretchability of the cured print. Add 10 - 30%, the more base added the greater the stretch. The addition of Flexiscreen base will also reduce the resulting inks opacity and printers should balance the amount of stretchability needed with opacity.

Plastisol Metallic Base is a crystal clear plastisol to which metallic powders can be added to make bright metallic inks. It can also be used as base for glitter powders to achieve a glitter / sparkle effect. You can also use this base to make up phosphorescent ink. The Metallic Base can also be used as a gloss overprint varnish.

When Hi Rise Base (Puff Base) is added to Plastisol inks a 3D effect can be achieved. The addition of 10 - to - 50% will raise the print. To get a correct build is a combination of base, temperature and dwell time in the tunnel drier. The base will reduce the colours to pastel shades but their opacity will be increased.

Plastisol High Build Gloss is a very thick crystal clear plastisol which when used in conjunction with a thick stencil (see Multi-Coat) will produce a high build print of up to 450µm. Thicker prints can be made by flash curing and overprinting. The High Build Gloss Base can be coloured by the addition of other Plastisol plastisols from 5 - 15% max. The High Build Gloss Base can also be used as a gloss overprint varnish.

This is a very potent reducer, use between 1 and 4% to get maximum effect. This reducer will lower viscosity which may reduce the inks opacity. The other effect achieved when using this flow aid is a softening of the print feel. N.B. Caution: Mixings in excess of 5% will make plastisol less reactive to heat and may stop it from curing properly.

Thickener Powder is a very fine powder that when mixed into any ink will drastically increase the resulting viscosity. Care should be used when using this product as it is easily air-borne.

Curable Reducer is an eco and user friendly alternative to solvent reducers. Curable Reducer as the name suggests is a plastisol reducer that cures in the ink. The exact opposite of solvent reducers that evaporate out during the curing process, thus reducing the ink film weight and filling up your print shop with solvent fumes. Curable Reducer will quickly decrease the tack of the ink as well as reduce the inks viscosity. Lowering the tack will improve the wet on wet printability and lowering the viscosity will make the ink easier to print through finer meshes as well as making the finished print softer to the touch. The addition of Curable reducer will not affect the wash fastness. The addition of between 1 and 5% of Curable Reducer will have little or no effect on the inks opacity. (More than 5% may affect the opacity.)

Soft Hand Base is used to decrease the tack of plastisol ink and increase the volume of the ink. It will only slightly reduce the inks viscosity. It will improve the wet on wet printability as well as increasing the inks mileage. Large additions of Soft Hand Base (up to 50%) will make the ink easier to print through finer meshes as well as making the finished print softer to the touch. This base is used to make opaque plastisol inks more suitable for printing onto white fabric as well as decreasing the cost of the coloured ink. You can add as much Soft Hand Base as you like to a plastisol it will not affect the wash fastness.

This base is used to extend the volume of our opaque plastisol colours. The addition of this base will not seriously affect their opacity but can help to reduce overall costs when printing onto lighter coloured fabrics.