Screen Printing Forum

hi
I printed for the first time just he other day using waterbased ink on a fruit of the loom t-shirt

My first print went so well I was quite amazed! but then the next 3 i did got progressively worse. Ink started to come through the screen in various places as if the emulsion on the screen was progressively breaking up and getting weaker as I ran the squeegee over it.

I left the t-shirts to dry just air drying overnight. I washed one of the t-shirts a few days later after wearing it, and the image has almost entirely washed out ? Is this because I need to dry the print image prperly when freshly printed or/and do I need to add something to my ink? or does one use the ink straight out of the pot?

Thanks for reading

bod

I don't use water based ink, but you may want to check to be sure your emulsion is ok to use with water based inks. Not all are. Check the man. reccomendations for using the ink to be sure you are using it properly.

I hadn't added a catalyst to the ink

just a recommendation

When making a post... you should list the equipment, Inks & chemicals (like emulsion) so people can better answer your questions.

It's hard to really understand what the cause of the problem might be without details. Water-based inks can be very different from one brand to the next and/or one type to the next.

Were you using water-based textile inks? Water-based air-dry inks? Many water-based textile inks need to be heat cured similar to plastisol inks. This requires heating the ink to a particular tempature for a set length of time.

Heat + Time = wash-fastness