# Discharge Problems



## Techprint (Dec 20, 2012)

I'm having some serious discharge ink problems, Here's the situation:

Shirt color - Royal Blue
2 color job - white and yellow

After 1 pass with discharge white and discharge yellow, the shirt looks faded when it comes out the dryer, like it never even discharged at all.










So then I did multiple passes on the colors, print white, flash, print white again, flash, print white again, flash, print yellow, flash, print yellow. To get this results:











There's got to be a easier way, I was looking at ryonet comet white, where I don't need to discharge at all and use regular waterbase ink on dark colors, any ideas / help?


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## TLK (Jan 15, 2013)

Most people stay away from Royal Blue when using discharge ink, along with kelly greens and purples. They just don't discharge as well as other colours. 

In my opinion, in the second photo, what you're doing there is laying down pigmented discharge, flashing it dry and they laying more on top. Not discharging properly and it will more than likely wash right off leaving a print that isn't bright at all.


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## jgabby (Mar 29, 2007)

what brand I you using (discharge system ZFS or NF activator ? ) and what % of activator do you use ?


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## Techprint (Dec 20, 2012)

TLK said:


> Most people stay away from Royal Blue when using discharge ink, along with kelly greens and purples. They just don't discharge as well as other colours.
> 
> In my opinion, in the second photo, what you're doing there is laying down pigmented discharge, flashing it dry and they laying more on top. Not discharging properly and it will more than likely wash right off leaving a print that isn't bright at all.


Yes I'm pretty sure this is the problem, the color. Last month I had a order of kelly green tshirts, had to pfp to get the right red.




jgabby said:


> what brand I you using (discharge system ZFS or NF activator ? ) and what % of activator do you use ?


Matsui, all my mixture percents are right and spot on. 



Would you think ryonet comet white be the fix?
After watching this video, it looks like it may be the fix, Discharge might not work well with blue, purple, green.. but what about straight waterbase ink?

Here is the video:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_K6_vqgCYI[/media]


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## jgabby (Mar 29, 2007)

I like sericol texcharge, very good

Use this as a guide, and make your own for each t-shirt you will test in your screenprinter life lol

http://support.silkscreeningsupplie...ildan-Discharge-Rating-Scale-For-Best-Results

[media]http://blog.seri-suisse.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Discharge-Print-Rating-Chart.png[/media]


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## TLK (Jan 15, 2013)

Techprint said:


> Yes I'm pretty sure this is the problem, the color. Last month I had a order of kelly green tshirts, had to pfp to get the right red.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I don't think it matters how much agent you use, if the shirt doesn't discharge, it doesn't discharge. Not much you can do about it. 

Don't know about Ryonet inks, I haven't used them. We've used Magna inks here in the UK for water base and discharge and they're good inks.

Water based ink has to be opaque the same as plastisol does to cover on dark shirts. You can use plastisol through higher mesh than water based and get a soft hand if that's what you're after. Never be as soft as discharge though. I suppose it depends on the finish you want?


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## jgabby (Mar 29, 2007)

I tried permaset supercover, once cured the ink has really soft hand, that can be a solution for garment that do not discharge well.


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## keepitspinning (Jan 13, 2014)

I experimented rather thoroughly with the percentage of activator, and it had little if any effect. One key is know if the shirt uses "reactive dye". Some brands, and some colors discharge better than others, but it is a crap shoot and is not always consistent. In one run of around 300 black Gildan 2000's we printed discharge, and it was obvious that the various sizes were each from different dye lots. Of the 5 sizes we printed, one of them was not good at all, the rest were fairly close, but yet different.


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## TLK (Jan 15, 2013)

keepitspinning said:


> I experimented rather thoroughly with the percentage of activator, and it had little if any effect. One key is know if the shirt uses "reactive dye". Some brands, and some colors discharge better than others, but it is a crap shoot and is not always consistent. In one run of around 300 black Gildan 2000's we printed discharge, and it was obvious that the various sizes were each from different dye lots. Of the 5 sizes we printed, one of them was not good at all, the rest were fairly close, but yet different.


That's right, reactive dyed 100% cotton or at least 80 / 20 will discharge best. Gildan is usually very good with discharge we've found.
A while ago we did a run of black Gildan heavy tees, printed with white discharge. For the first hour or so they were fine. After an hour the print started coming out the dryer green! We thought the emulsion was breaking down or something. It turned out to be all the Medium Gildans most have been re-dyed or dyed differently in some way. All other sizes were fine. Annoying, but not much you can do about it.


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## keepitspinning (Jan 13, 2014)

One other thing we were told is that once the activator is mixed into the discharge, the useful life is less than 24 hours. While we didn't experiment heavily, we had a fair amount left over on a run, and tried it the next day (probably 16-18 hours later), and it still worked. We always mix as we go to try to avoid having any left over. Once activated, it stinks to high heaven. Like having a skunk loose in the shop.


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## Ccorliss (Apr 10, 2010)

This is a common issue with certain dyes, purple garments are not so good to use discharge with.

I have tried using a discharge base and then flash then use plastisols on top. Normally yellow is thick so i sometimes reduce the viscosity. You will still have that discharge feel and look.


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## artizenapparel (Dec 4, 2013)

For certain colors, its best to use a white under base instead of discharge. I use the Gen IV and get really good results.


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## Techprint (Dec 20, 2012)

artizenapparel said:


> For certain colors, its best to use a white under base instead of discharge. I use the Gen IV and get really good results.


I forgot to mention, that for the second picture where I did multiple passes, it has a white underbase. Thats the only reason why I actually got the yellow so bright.

The shirt is next level


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## greyclothingco (Mar 12, 2014)

I understand that the ink has a super short shelf life, but I was wondering if after printing it still has that same shelf life.
I'm printing my shirts in my studio and have to drive them down the road to run them through a dryer and I'm wondering if the discharge will stop working by the time I get them all printed and can run them through.
Anybody have experience with this?
I can def flash them, but I don't think it will have the same effect as if I run them through a conveyer dryer.


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## keepitspinning (Jan 13, 2014)

I could be wrong on this, but since this is a water based product, I would guess that one the "ink-if you will" air dries, it will probably no longer discharge.
However, after saying that, we've had prints feel dry coming from the flasher, with the print barely showing, and looked fine after going through the dryer.
How is that for a non-answer.
I'll also add, we've tried discharging with massive amounts of discharge applied (print, flash, print, flash to the tune of 5 or six coats). 
We're using an M & R gas Sprint 2000 with a 10' chamber. Even a belt speed of 6' a minute (with a chamber temp of 360), the print area was still damp, so so we ran though a second time.
The print did not discharge any more, but the print area felt brittle.
I don't have any discharge jobs on the horizon to give it a try, but I would be concerned about having shirts partially discharged.
Good luck.


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

100% cotton discharges best (on a 100% cotton black tee a correctly discharge print w/o pigment or white pre-mix will discharge white. the larger percentage of blend added to the garment the less it will discharge...i.e. 50/50 black tee discharge print without pigment or white pre-mix will come out grey).

tri-blends don't discharge well at all. and depending on the color some 100% colored tees don't discharge. here is a list of colors from gildan that they grade for discharging purposes (although it is from gildan, i've found that these colors hold true on other brands i.e. american apparrel, next level etc.):

http://support.silkscreeningsupplie...ildan-discharge-rating-scale-for-best-results

and on discharge jobs i use a heat gun to draw the print out. water based and discharge prints react better to a forced air circulation of curing and drying.


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