"Water Discharge" Silkscreening vs. Traditional "Plastisol" Phalate Free based Screening

 There are two ways to silkscreen a garment. Traditional methods use "Plastisol" which is somewhat toxic to apply and dispose of. The manufacturers of this material have made huge advances in this product during the past few years and apparently the clean up process breaks the toxins down to very miniscule amounts of toxic material going down the drain.

Some industry types claim that its just as "green" as water based "dye-discharge" screening. The clean up process is way less toxic to municipal water ways than say 5 years ago. Depending who you talk too, the screen reclamaiton process is where the enviromental concerns arise in both processes.

We offer both imprint methods to our customers. The one you choose depends a lot how sensitive you are to colour accuracy and how open minded you are to a different looking garment. You can't really compare them. Each has a very different look and feel.

Water based screening

• dye "discharged" from garment
• natural colored fabric is re-dyed with new color
• color becomes part of fabric
• has "worn in" look
• hard to match exact pantone colors
• Color changes slighty after washing
• requires long cure time in energy hungry dryers
• ink has really short shelf life. Constant mixing, throwing out of old ink and re-mixing new ink

Plastisol Screening

• paint like substance coats fabric
• renders colors with intensity
• leaves color of fabric in tact
• color sits on top of fabric
• requires less dryer and cure time
• ink has long shelf life and extra can be re-used

 To read a very detailed and more technical explanation, download this document from the Printers National Enviromental Assistance Centre