TSB
screen printing => Ink and Chemicals => Topic started by: Frog on November 04, 2011, 04:19:42 PM
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I hope that an ink rep or two chimes in here.
Since curable reducers are used in relatively small proportions, how important is using a low bleed version when the ink is indeed low bleed, and is being used on 50/50?
Not every manufacturer seems to even offer two versions, let alone having distributors that stock it.
Commence the chiming!
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Low bleed reducer? Never heard of that. I have tried almost every white I can get my hands on and I have to say they all are too thick and need to be reduced. The bleeding on 50/50s have more to do with your dryer temp then if you reduced the ink. I can take any low bleed ink and run it thru my dryer too high and it will bleed a ton. Low bleed ink is exactly as it says "LOW" bleed it still bleeds.
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You can use Wilflex Viscosity buster. I just had a conversation with my Rep about it a week ago. I needed to thin some 100% poly ink down and it worked great. THe amount of reducer that I needed to add would have greatly affected the bleed resistance. 1% of the VB was all I needed.
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Excalibur has a 1501 Reducer as a part of their low bleed line... We don’t stock it yet lol.
Using a low bleed reducer with a low bleed ink could help?? But I can’t imagine it making that much difference.
I guess it does depend on how much reducer you are adding?
2% reducer shouldn’t make any difference... 20% reducer might??
I have seen people use as much as 50% curable reducer for soft hand applications, but never in a low bleed application.
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Until recently, my low bleed white was from International Coatings, who does offer a low bleed reducer. Ironically, the ink I used was specifically low viscosity, and I never needed the reducer. Now, that ink is discontinued, and the ink that I have been using, from Xenon, is quite thick, and though prints nicely, crawls up the squeegee, (as has been discussed here before) Another frustration is that the local IC supplier does not carry the low bleed reducer, and Xenon could not verify if their's is indeed, low bleed. Still waitin' on Sonny.
Knowing of the availability of low bleed reducers forces me to consider their value, and inspired this post.
While I agree that 2% addition is minimal, some shirts over the last few years have a real bleeding issue, and I like to cover my bases, and have an edge on Mr. Murphy whenever possible.