Hello everybody. I’m new to the board. I think I just had my very first loyal customer! She ordered 2 cases of white tees, again. This is her fourth time. She wants to add dimension to her design so I suggested puff ink even though I’ve only heard about it. The problem is I don’t have much experience with puff ink, but I didn’t want to turn the job down for fear of losing my customer to my competitor who is not that far from me. Anybody have some tips for printing with puff ink? I’d appreciate a simple overview as I’ve been a screen printer only recently, well at least I’d like to call myself one. Thanks in advance!
Regards,
Bill
Puff ink is plastisol with additive. You can either buy the ink in premixed (ready-for-use) form, you can buy the additive and mix it yourself, or you can buy the main colors premixed and also purchase the additive for those odd colors. If you’re going to mix it yourself, it’s important to get it just right for puff ink so consult the Technical Data Sheet from the supplier for best results. Otherwise, if you add too much additive, the ink will rise too much and you don’t want that to happen.
The ink will rise and expand when it is heated. Large block solid areas will cause the garment to distort/pucker. To avoid this from happening you have to turn those areas into a 60% halftone dot. For a nice thick puff, I like to use a 60 monofilament mesh. One light stroke is what I strive for to keep the ink on top of the garment. I cure the ink at around 300 F.
For multi-color puff designs, I find flash-curing between colors works best. I don’t overlap the colors in the separations, in fact, I leave a small gap. That gap will close when the ink puffs. Hope this helps you somewhat.
Thanks so much for the tips!!! Can’t wait to try this.
Bill
You’re welcome. Good decision on not turning down the job by the way.