Puff ink, which has been around since the early 1970s, is making a comeback. One of the original “special effects” inks, puff expands during the curing/heating process, adding a 3-D texture to prints.
Here are a couple of tips for using puff ink:
• By using a thicker stencil, such as a capillary film, to print the puff design, you can achieve a higher loft without having to print-flash-print too many times.
• When printing a larger design with puff, creating a fat or coarse half-tone design — rather than one big area — will allow the ink to expand without distorting the overall design. When too much puff ink is printed as a large area, the expanding ink tends to cross over the original borders of the design.
Kieth Stevens is the Western regional sales manager for International Coatings. He has been teaching screen printing for more than 10 years and is a regular contributor to International Coatings’ blogs. For more information, visit iccink.com and read the company’s blog at internationalcoatingsblog.com.
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