UV Inks: Let the Sun Reveal Your Statement
By: Tonia Cook Kimbrough
Color-change products are no strangers to promotional circles. We've all seen imprinted mugs that change messages when hot liquids are poured into them. What we haven't seen much of in screen printing are solar-reactive imprints on apparel – imprints that appear and disappear in reaction to UV rays. This is despite the fact that UV inks have been around for awhile and used to some extent by retail brands for fun, unique T-shirts.
That may be changing. The latest UV inks are better than ever. Pony Xpress Printing (PXP, asi/297068) has found the effect these inks produce is well worth the time to source them. "Unlike traditional ink, where suppliers make every color under the sun, in UV ink, you might have to use multiple vendors for various colors," says PXP President Jeff Henderson. "Likewise, different brands' colors work to different capacities. We source our colors all over the world. Some of the best colors come out of Europe."
The value of UV inks is in their creative application. "What we work hard to do," Henderson says, "is help our clients get creative with designs and inks. We don't have a stock set of templates, where everyone gets the same UV effect. We work hand in hand to understand the branding campaign, then design a unique effect that matches the client's message."
Earlier versions of UV-reactive inks have been criticized for dullness in color, but new offerings provide improved vibrancy. The issue has been, as Henderson explains, the difference between water-based inks (which UV is), and traditional plastisol ink, which has a plastic base. "That plastic makes the shirt have a heavy, sometimes rough hand, but it also gives the imprint its brilliance," he says. "The sunlight is reflected off the plastic, giving a ‘wet' look. Water-based inks, including UV, do not use this plastic base. The print is not as shiny, but it also has a smooth, soft hand that you can barely feel." UV inks also lack the phthalates found in plastisol, a bonus eco-friendly angle to pitch to your clients.
Do UV inks work on all kinds of fabrics? "Like other water-based inks, you get your best results on white fabric," Henderson says. However, he adds, "We've printed orange UV ink on neon-green performance material and had great results. But, the color of the shirts affects the outcome of the color change. In this case, the orange was a bit darker on the green fabric than it would be on white."
There are some T-shirts in the industry that have UV protection engineered into the fabric. Ozone Apparel (asi/75572), for example, makes a tee with a 50+ UPF/UV protection factor that lasts for up to 40 washes or 100 hours of sunlight. Though Henderson has not used these shirts for his projects, he doubts the sun protection features of the garment would hinder the UV inks. "In theory," he says, "the protection in the shirt is a chemical wash in the fabric, where the print is on top of the fabric. The UV ink should work just fine."
You can expect a UV imprint to remain effective for the long term. "We've yet to see a UV tee stop performing," Henderson says. "This process is a chemical reaction, like phosphorus glow-in-the dark. It continues to react to the sunlight time after time."
TONIA COOK KIMBROUGH is a contributing writer for Stitches.