# Dupont e series ink curing time



## Vermilion (Aug 24, 2012)

Hello everyone,
I'm using new Dupont E series ink(E10-40 colors, E90 white), and from time to time (not often, but still annoying) customers complain of print peeled off and color fades after one or few washes. Having only problems with dark/colored shirts.
I'm using Ecofreen universal pretreatment, cured at 170 C for 70 sec, printing shirts with solid white layer 1440x1440 (as stated in pic below), then curing for 100 sec, light pressure.
Printed with Texjet Shortee.
What could be the problem? Not enough cure time? Some people stated that new Dupont ink don't have to use usual cure time, so I shortened it as recommended. Also, I use parchment paper for curing.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

This is where having water-based screen-printing experience helps.
You need ink into the fabric... not just on the surface.
Doing it right will likely double your ink cost, but the prints will last.

Curing time depends on temperature and equipment used. 
For dark garments, the best curing method is a conveyor drier, and DuPont recommends 300 seconds at 180°C.
White garments cure much faster with a heat press, 60 seconds at 180°C.


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## Vermilion (Aug 24, 2012)

TABOB said:


> This is where having water-based screen-printing experience helps.
> You need ink into the fabric... not just on the surface.
> Doing it right will likely double your ink cost, but the prints will last.
> 
> ...


Unfortunatelly, I don't have conveyor drier, nor do I have need for one, since I don't print that much shirts daily. 
My big question is, is there any tested method/time of curing new Dupont inks that actually works, since I can't find anything on their site.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

Vermilion said:


> My big question is, is there any tested method/time of curing new Dupont inks that actually works, since I can't find anything on their site.


As I said DuPont recommends 300 seconds at 180°C and a conveyor dryer.




Vermilion said:


> Unfortunatelly, I don't have conveyor drier, nor do I have need for one, since I don't print that much shirts daily.


You could just hover the heat-press before pressing, but you'll have to do your own testing to find what time and temperature works for your print settings and equipment.
The point I'm trying to make however, is that poorly cured prints may fade in the wash but should not flake like yours.
This type of flaking is caused by incorrect balancing the amounts of ink and pretreatment. You need to have some ink into the fabric.
You can see what under-curing looks like in the post bellow. As you can see there is no flaking.








DuPont Artistri curing time and pressure


Hello everyone, I'm still a beginner in the DTG game. I use Epson SC-P400 based printer with DuPont Artistri inks and pretreatment. There's a lot of contradicting information on curing time, pressure etc. The most common information I could find was: - pretreatment should be cured for 30...




www.t-shirtforums.com


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