Windbreaker Printing and other Synthetic Materials

by Mohit J. White Hat Link Building Services

While it is possible to print onto synthetic materials windbreakers and other clothing are made from like neoprene or nylon, the process is more difficult for a couple of reasons. First of all a lot of printing technologies, even t-shirt printing, Singapore, use a water-based ink that uses the texture of the garment like the t-shirt to adhere to it. But when those materials are made to repel water placing an image on them using this method is not going to work because there is nothing for the ink to bond or attach to. Also, there is the issue of nylon having a melting point that is low. Again most printing methods on clothing use a heating process to press the image onto it. But the time it takes to do this on this kind of material would either discolour the material or melt it.

Getting around these problems

But some printing services do offer windbreaker printing and other synthetic materials, so how do they get around those problems? It is a harder printing job and different printing services have their own techniques and processes. One of the products used is called a hugger catalyst. This does an essential thing during the printing process. It helps the ink bond to the fabric despite the smoothness of the material acting as a glue to get the ink to adhere to the windbreaker.

Do you need to remove the windbreaker’s waterproof coating?

There is some debate in the printing world about whether the process should include the removal of the waterproof coating on the garment, windbreaker or otherwise. This means using rubbing alcohol on the material before then going through the printing process. Some services in t-shirt printing, Singapore says it is best to do it, some services say it is not necessary. The fact is that most garments with a waterproof coating can be printed on without the removal stage. Occasionally there might be some issues though with how well the process then works.

Preparing the ink

One of the things the expert needs to handle is the ink and the catalyst mix. There is a percent needed of the catalyst depending on how much ink you need, 10% is what works for some options, so if you have 200 grams of ink you would then need to mix in 20 grams of catalyst. It is important to be ready to do the printing soon as the hugger catalyst does thicken after a while and that affects the printing. Optimally look at printing within four to six hours after mixing. Make sure to choose the best mesh count for the kind of ink you are using. Something like a shimmer ink needs 110 so that those flakes can go through the screen.

Finishing off

Then it is a matter of the service properly cleaning their screens, as the ink will harden and adhere to the screen mesh. Clean-up is essential for the printing supplies. The windbreaker printing is complete and thanks to the hugger catalyst the ink is adhering to the material without scratching off and without washing off.