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ECOPLAST F
Highly pigmented opaque screen printing ink (black, white and 12 different colours). Printing on dark coloured textiles especially when many layers are printed the feel of the print could be hard. Recommended to use the finest possible mesh (68-120). Softening the print could be possible by adding plasticizer paste , but the curing process needs to be more careful because over portioning the plasticizer could cause migrations. The risk of migration especially high when printing on synthetic or surface-treatment materials.
ECOPLAST TRANSPARENT BASE
Transparent matt film base which can be used well with Ecoplast pigment pastes and lightening Ecoplast F colours.
ECOPLAST GEL
Transparent soft film base which can be excellently coloured with polyester glitters and can be used well for lightening Ecoplast F colours.
ECOPLAST EX-C
Foam concentrates which foaming at 150 ˚C. Recommended usage by the guiding formulas.
ECOPLAST PLASTICIZER PASTE
Softer prints can be produced by adding max. 10% of it to Ecoplast F. The pigment paste mixed with Plasticizer Paste has limited shelf life, depending on the temperatures it is 1-2 weeks. The deteriorated paste becomes thick, difficult to stir up and could be re-pasted only by adding large amount of thinning material. But the large amount of plasticizer can cause migration problems.
ECOPLAST PIGMENT CONCENTRATES: black, white and 12 different colours according to the sample cards
Our pigment pastes are made to colour any plastisol inks. The paste is free from phtalate, therefore contains PVC so we use the same paste for phtalate-free plastisols too. In our pigment range we have chosen pigments which have excellent light- and migration fastening. In case of yellow colour we produce two types of pigment paste. Ecoplast Yellow (PY 13), which has lower price, but it is not suitable for creating very light, pastel shades (beige, sand, skin-colour). There is a possibility that after a few days yellow colour blotches appear on the print (migration). This problem is avoidable by using Ecoplast Yellow HQ (PY 93) pigment paste which is more expensive. The F Yellow opaque ink in the sample card was produced by using the cheaper paste. In our colour-mixing system we only use the more expensive pigment.
ECOPLAST GLITTER BASE
Silver and gold prints could also be produced by mixing it with suitable pigment paste. The sparkle of gold and silver can be enhanced by adding 3-5% similar colour polyester glitter to the coloured ECOPLAST GLITTER BASE. (granule-size max.180 micron and for the printing 32-70 mesh can be used).
ECOPLAST HIGH DENSITY
For producing bold prints we have our guiding formulas, but we recommend our own optimum combination pigment paste, called ECOPLAST HIGH DENSITY.
ECOPLAST DFA
Adhesive for direct flock. We advice to colour with ECOPLAST pigments matching the colour of the flock fibre. Recommended mash: 32-70 polyester.
ECOPLAST H (PLASZTCOLOR H)
Do not use more than 10% for plasticizer mixture. Overdose can cause migration.
Printing
Recommended mesh
In case of glitters: between 12-140 and 48-70.
It’s important to choose always the mesh made from thinner yarn.
In case of bold prints: between 24-120 and 48-70 (32-70 is used in most cases).
In case of opaque colours: between 32-70 and 68-55.
In case of raster printing: between 68-55 and 100-35 according to the colour-scan.
Curing
In heating tunnel: the minimum temperature for the heating tunnel should be 150ºC -180ºC.
Time of the curing: 3-5 minutes.
Problems by incomplete curing:
- Rubbing fastness problems (especially dry rubbing fastness)
- Plasticizer migration, which may occur only some days / weeks later on the surface of the print, which makes the print sticky, the plasticizer which stays on the surface can make the print and the package dirty and it’s hard to remove.
- Hard, cracking, not elastic print
Signs of incomplete curing:
- The print, which comes out of the heating tunnel (warm), smells strong of plasticizer. (This smell can be observed mainly on the ink and on the plasticizer paste)
- The rubbing fastness of the print is poor, the surface is hard and cracking
- If we mix foam concentrate into the ink, the surface will be stained, if the curing was not right. Mat and glossy parts follow each other.
- After curing we heat the cold print with a heating pistol or a hair dryer from the backside and we can smell the plasticizer again.
- We should choose the temperature and the time of the curing so, that the whole layer of the printed ink gets jelly. This happens in case of printing a colour on a white fabric very quickly. In case of printing more colours on each other and by fat prints the thickness of the printed ink layer can be 400 μ as well. To ensure, that the ink touching directly the raw material can get enough heat as well, longer curing is needed and/or the temperature should be higher. It is important, that the curing will be done in one phase. In case of a curing on lower temperature the ink gets partly jelly. When it gets cold, it absorbs the free plasticizer hardly. The incomplete curing can be improved only by letting the print through a heating tunnel on considerably higher temperature. It is usual in case of plastiol printing to iron the cured print through a silicon paper in order to get softer handle. The additional ironing happens usually on 140-150°C for a short time 5-10 seconds.
If we iron a print with incomplete curing through silicon paper, the left plasticizer can neither build in nor disappear, so there’s a risk for later migration.
Important Note
With Ecoplast pigment concentrates and plasticizer paste there always gets some plasticizer into the system. If we mix a lot of pigments to Ecoplast Gel for example or we want to change the shade of the ready Ecoplast F colours with pigments, we get more and more softer prints, which enlarges the risk of plasticizer migration, and the too many pigments makes the dry rubbing fastness of the print worse. When the ink contains more pigment concentrate and plasticizer paste it needs more temperature by curing.
The total amount of plasticizer paste and colour pigment concentrate can never be more than 25%. In case of white pigment 40%.
Guiding formulas for producing inks
In case of opaque colours: 0-10% white pigment
0-10% colour pigment
0-5% EX-C
100-75% Ecoplast Gel
It’s worth adding EX-C to the ink, when we would like to produce mat prints.
Black: 8% Ecoplast Black pigment
10% Plasticizer Paste
82% Ecoplast Gél
Opaque white: 0-40% Ecoplast white pigment
60-100% Ecoplast Gel
Screen printing inks with polyester glitters:
0-15% polyester glitter
0-10% plasticizer paste
75-100% Ecoplast Gel
Screen printing inks for fat print:
Glossy: 0-5% colour pigment
0-10% white pigment
85-100% Ecoplast Gel
Mat: 0-5% colour pigment
0-10% white pigment
0-5% EX-C
80-100% Ecoplast Gel
The Ecoplast F series are also suitable for bold printing, but they contain unnecessary lot of colour pigments.
Screen printing inks for bold print from Ecoplast F:
Glossy: 0-60% Ecoplast F
100-40% Ecoplast Gel
Mat: 0-60% Ecoplast F
0-5% Ecoplast Ex-C
100-35% Ecoplast Gel
Making Puff inks from Ecoplast:
Puff from Ecoplast Ecoplast F –coloured 70-95%
(except for white) Ex-C 5-30%
coloured puff Ecoplast Gel 60-95%
Ecoplast pigment paste 0-10%
EX-C 5-30%
white puff Ecoplast Gel 60-85%
Ecoplast white pigment 10%
EX-C 5-30%
Ecoplast opaque white 40%
Ecoplast Gel 30-55%
EX-C 5-30%
EX-C 150 provides thermostabil puff prints. The foam structure remains, even when cured on 180-200°C. If we mix Ecoplast F opaque white with EX-C, the foam is too hard, so the above formula should be followed for producing white puff. We can make finer or harder foam structures (like cauliflower) than the foam structure of EX-C 150 as well, when required.
Concentrations of process-colours:
Ecoplast Yellow pigment 3%
Ecoplast Blue pigment 2,5%
Ecoplast brill. Pink 2,5%
Ecoplast Black 2%
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+ Ecoplast plasticizer paste 0-20%
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+ Ecoplast Gel 77-97%
Thickening of Ecoplast screen printing inks:
Adding Ecoplast V synthetic thickener or silica derivates e.g. AEROSIL, Wacker HDK the Ecoplast screen printing inks can be thickened.
Recommended proportion: 0.2-1%.
Adding Ecoplast V to the ink needs intensive stirring, and needs few hours to obtain the final thickening. It is very easy to overdose, because at the beginning of the stirring the thickening effect will not be observed. We strongly recommend measuring the amount of the thickening agent. The starting quantity 0,5% and the maximum is 2%. The over-thickened ink becomes unusable after a few hours.
In case of using silica derivates e.g. Aerosil or Wacker HDK for thickening, leave the ink rest for 30 minutes after adding Aerosil, then stir again in order to get smooth, clot-free ink. During stirring the ink temperature cannot get above 35˚C.
Colour-printing
Printing on light colour textile we normally use 68-120 mesh, and print very small amount of ink to the surface. In case of colour-printing on darker textile, we have to print a white fleck as a first colour. We do not recommend adding plasticizer to the ink because of the risk of migration.
Storage of Ecoplast screen printing inks
Life time is six months at optimal circumstances. When stored in a constantly warm place the ink gets thick and finally it cannot be printed (it is damaged). Maybe you can use the thickened ink again with plasticizer paste or liquid plasticizers, but the risk of migration will be very high.