Are you struggling with keeping opened pad or screen printing ink and hardener fresh?
We have a convenient solution: the VersaCover! Don’t miss our commercial to air at the Super Bowl. Here is a sneak preview, just for you:

The VersaCover hermetically seals nearly all ink and hardener cans available on the market.
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Inkjet printed basketball backboard (click to enlarge!)

This crystal clear imprint on this piece of glass (small version of a basketball backboard) was created using the Mimaki UJF-605CII Flatbed Inkjet Printer.

This inkjet printed glass was done in two parts; printing the colored logo first, then overprinting with white in order to make the artwork more opaque. We also printed the solid white stripe as an example of how the lines would look.

Since the impact of the basketball would eventually wear out an imprint we decided to print on the back on the board were the glass gives the impression that the print is on the front.

Before printing, Paul our Mimaki expert, started off by wiping the glass backboard down with our Glass Activator (Specially developed in our ICN Laboratory…) to get extra adhesion to the glass.

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Screen Printing Inks

Everyone in the pad printing and screen printing industry could do with some useful ink tips now and then to freshen up the memory and maybe learn something new! That’s why we want to bring up some common ink issues and how to go about solving them.

• Add a touch of blue to make your white ink brighter

We happen to get calls from customers sometimes asking about how to brighten white screen printing or pad printing ink. To do so you can actually just add a touch of blue color to it. More specifically, #32 from any of our ink series would be the best option.

• How to handle misprints

Removing misprints from plastics is also a issue for some people. The best way to handle it is to use our Ink-Away Remover to clean the substrate and then overprint the shadow before removing the object from the nesting fixture. However, if the ink attacks the plastic it may be impossible to re-claim the item.

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Personalized Luggage Tag

The PromoJET is known for being an extremely versatile printer, capable of printing on objects of different sizes and shapes. But let’s not forget that a small flat objects such as luggage tags is another great application for the PromoJET Inkjet Printer.

They came out looking very shiny and the resolution of the artwork in really outstanding. See for yourself by clicking on the picture to see a larger image!

Greg simply followed 3 easy steps to go from plain white tags to colorful personalized luggage tags.

• First thing he needed to do was to wipe down the tags with alcohol to get all those sticky fingerprints off!
• Secondly, he pre-treated them using a heat gun which is a pretty common procedure in order to get the best ink adhesion possible.
• Lastly, all he did was placing the luggage tags on the printer table and off it goes!

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Worn Out Pads

Have you ever experienced problems while pad printing such as repeated misprints or voided prints? If so, your initial reaction was most likely that it was caused by the ink. However, many times it is due to the fact that the printing pad needs replacing. If your pad looks anything like those on the picture, it’s about time you get a new one!

By the way, for a limited time, we have a Buy 5 Pads Get 1 Free offer for you. Search our pad selection and call in for more details at 978-646-8981.

Common Issues Caused by Old Pad

• • All silicone pads have oil in them to pick up and transfer ink properly. If the pad dries out you may experience voids in the prints.
• • If the image is burnt into the pad that means it has dried out. This can be caused by using a high ratio of hardeners or thinners in your ink - hardeners and some thinners are aggressive to the silicone surface. This is normal and doesn’t necessarily mean that there is something wrong with your ink mix - but you will have to change your pad more often. (The life of the pad also depends on what substrates you print on, for instance, softer plastic materials is gentler to print on then hard metal objects.)
• • Pads can also get saturated with thinners, leading to poor ink pick-up. If the saturation happens, the pad will dry out quicker than it should.
• • When the pad durometer changes (due to dryness) softer pads get softer and harder pads get harder, which will also affect the outcome of the artwork.

We’ve seen a lot pads and done a lot of pad printing here at Inkcups. Our conclusion is: if you are continuing to use a deteriorated pad instead of getting a new one, you are wasting much more than you are saving because of all the misprints and aggravation.

How to Take Care of Your Printing Pad

Even the best pads won’t last forever. However, you can prolong their life by regular maintenance.
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Hi! A few tips on using Sapphire inks for screen print process:

• When using Sapphire inks for screen printing, you need a slower thinner than that you use for pad printing and you need it in lesser quantities. You want to add 3-5% of thinner to start and then see if you need more. For instance blue colors will most likely be fine but some red colors will require more thinner. High density colors will always require more thinner.

• Use S3 screen thinner, it will prevent your screen from “locking.”

• To increase ink opacity use the widest mesh appropriate for your artwork.
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Diamond Etch - ink for glass (click to expand!)

Does this image not look laser engraved? Yet it is printed, with all its fine lines. Not only the ink looks great, you can save money with it!
Click on the image to view it closer.
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Diamond Etched plastic mug (click to expand!)

This is Diamond Etch ink again - the ink that imitates laser engraving or sand blasting. Yesterday Pete - ICN’s Ink Master - printed this logo on a glass jar (see one of the posts above). Today, he experimented with printing on clear plastic. Despite the glare on the photo, you can probably see how nice and crisp it came out. Click on the picture to view a bigger image.
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