A pound of cure . . . Curing Ink on Nylon
BY RICK ROTH
About the author: Rick
Roth is president of Pawtucket, R.I.-based Mirror
Image. In recent years, his
business has taken home
numerous Golden Image
awards in various categories, as well as top honors
in the industry media’s various printing competitions. Read his blog at theinkkitchen.com.
I have figured out how to throw ink on quite a few substrates and, most of the time, how to get it to stay there… even
permanently. But it’s never as easy as anyone says it will be, especially when curing
on nylon.
The ink in this crisp print on a finished bag will not wash or scratch off thanks to the right amount of catalyst
and a dryer set at a low enough temperature that would not shrink the nylon. (Image courtesy Sports Systems Custom Bag Corporation)
Left to one’s devices
In order to get some of the trickier curing
processes such as that for nylon right, we
should first discuss some basics about curing
ink. Though there are some scientific definitions of what cured ink actually is, we’ll stick
to what the customers want to see—ink that
is dry to the touch, doesn’t scratch off easily, doesn’t crack and most importantly, does
not come off in a normal household wash.
A few exacting customers have asked to see
crock tests (how well ink resists scratching
off) and some have very specific wash tests
to pass, but those are few and far between.
For most customers, “don’t let this wash off”
is the standard.
Ink manufacturers will provide specifics,
say, bring the full ink film to 320° for x-amount of time and the ink will be cured.
This is great advice; only problem is that nobody really knows what temperature the ink
film is reaching, since it is sort of a mysterious thing going on somewhere in the bowels
of the dryer. There are several tools that will
provide some kind of idea, but none of them
