Formaldehyde Free discharge printing on T-shirts
Screen printing light colours on to dark T shirts is unlikely to become environmentally friendly any time soon (our recommendation to anyone who has a strict environmental policy is to print on to lighter T-shirts using clear water based inks) but discharge screen printing is one of the options being touted as a better alternative to plastisol inks. The majority of manufacturers supply a solution which contains small traces of Formaldehyde, they also uses heavy metals. These formulas are notorious for their unpleasant odours, and the required wash before wear label is a no no for most retailers.
Magnacolours have produced an alternative to these products, a discharge ink free from Formaldehyde and heavy metals. The NF formula performs very well, t-shirts printed with this ink can be worn immediately, the print has a soft hand and good colour. We have used then when printing by hand and on the auto, they are very user friendly in both situations. The draw backs are the same as those experienced when using products that use Formaldehyde . Very long curing times are required (but no flash curing, so not necessarily less energy efficient), and we think there is also an unpleasant odour, despite the manufacturer claim “No harmful or distracting odors in the workplace”.
The ink only has a limited life of 4 hours, but an organised workshop should have no problem dealing with this. The lifespan of the ink does create waste, if ink use cannot be determined accurately. We think discharge is not a suitable solution for smaller orders.
So overall the Non Formaldehyde inks seem to be the right choice when discharging T-shirts.
Some of the reasons to choose NF discharge.
• No formaldehyde added during discharge process.
• No harmful or distracting odors in the workplace.
• Garments can be worn immediately after printing-without washing or warnings.
• Super soft finish with excellent color fastness and durability.
• PVC, Phthalate and APEO free formulations. Meets all key international environmental
standards, see Technical Data Sheets for details.
• Superb discharge and color development on suitable garments.
• PC color mixing system support.
• Low viscosity inks print easily on manual and automatic presses.
Related posts:
[...] Our job conversion rate to water based inks is higher than ever, and the response from customers is great. There are very few light coloured T shirts that leave our workshops printed in plastic ink now. We cannot see any reason to print plastic ink on to white T shirts at all. There are still production problems to overcome when printing on to dark T shirts with water-based products, especially now with the warmer weather, but the prints themselves are of a very high quality. A little more tweaking through the quieter winter months should hopefully resolve our ink thickening issues. We are now leaning towards the discharge method of printing light colours on to dark shirts, there are less problems with ink drying in the screen, and an improved performance when printing wet on wet. See formaldehyde-free-discharge-printing-on-t-shirts. [...]
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