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Soft Plastisol

Soft plastisol inks can be a viable alternative to water base inks (and even discharge inks depending on the design, graphic and garment) with respect to visual and tactile characteristics.  Soft plastisol inks are also easier to print, especially when printing high resolution halftones through high mesh counts.  The key to soft plastisol ink is that you must use a pigment + base mixing system.  You cannot simply modify standard high viscosity/high opacity inks with curable reducer,  as doing so will dilute the pigment load in the ink and will ultimately affect the optical brightness/density of the printed image.  We employ Rutland’s C3 mixing system and utilize Chino Base for soft plastisol.  The following pictures show a print that was designed to mimic the look and feel of discharge using soft plastisol inks:

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The touch and feel of this oversized print matches what you would expect from waterbase/discharge inks. By selecting compatible ink and substrate colors the print even looks like discharge. Many competent printers have been fooled by this print.
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Low viscosity ink allows for printing over the collar with ease
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A pigment + base mixing system allows you to mix a very low viscosity ink while maintaining brightness/saturation
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This graphic was printed with 350 mesh for ultra fine detail. We are among the 99.99% of printers whom would not dare print water base/discharge through 350 mesh

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