ST Series Pad Printing Ink

The ST Series is a high-opacity ink designed for screen and pad printing on soft-touch materials, rubber, and apparel. This ink offers durability and flexibility, making it an excellent ink for printing on textiles.

As an apparel printing ink, once cured, it withstands multiple industrial washing cycles. This versatility is what makes it the ideal ink for printing care labels on T-shirts, shoes, and industrial and soft-touch promotional products.

Furthermore, adding the hardener significantly increases the ST Series ink film’s resistance to mechanical wear. Even after numerous washings, this printing ink will not fade due to our proprietary fade-resistant pigments. The pot life of the ink-hardener-solvent mixture is 6–8 hours at room temperature (70°F and 40–65% RH). For additional information, please refer to the TDS.

Like all other Natron® printing inks, the ST series falls under the non-toxic (NT) classification due to the absence of heavy metals or harmful chemicals. For more information, please refer to our safety data sheets, which comply with both EU and US regulations. Additionally, the product label prominently displays the primary indications.

The Natron ST pad printing ink is also available in six neon (fluorescent) colors, four metallic colors, and 23 high-opacity standard colors. All colors in this ink series are intermixable.

Highly flexible ink film for maximum wear comfort
Excellent resistance to industrial washing
High opacity makes it ideal for printing on dark substrates.

Available Sizes

1.0Kg (2.2lbs)

Hardener

i-300X

Solvents

TMF (Fast)

STB

TDG

Have questions?

Available Colors

Substrates

EPDM Rubber

EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) is a synthetic rubber made up of...

Features

Very High Opacity

The Natron ST series is intended for pad printing on rubber, natural, and synthetic fabrics that require high opacity, fade-resistant inks, which this ink provides. This ink series ink film has very high opacity.

Very good wash and mechanical resistance

This ink series is resistant to industrial machine washing. Washing resistance is achieved after a full cure of 24–48 hours at 20 °C (70 °F). The ST series is able to withstand over 50 industrial washes.

Very flexible

Outstanding flexibility and elasticity are two of the major characteristics of the ST ink line. As a result, this is the perfect ink for printing on flexible rubber substrates such as EVA, EPDM, and many other rubber substrates.

Abrasion resistance

For non-textile substrates such as EPDM, EVA, and soft-touch coated surfaces, the ST Series ink film exhibits outstanding adhesion, resulting in excellent rub, scratch, and block resistance. This pad printing ink is resistant to chemical products such as oils, greases, and solvents.

Durable, supercharged inks!

Print on Textiles, rubber, and soft touch substrates!

Applications

ST Series Mixing and Printing instructions

The only way to mix printing ink is by weight, whether you’re adding hardeners, solvents, or mixing different colors to make a new color.

To use the ink as one component, add the solvent to the ink. Mixing ratio: 10–35% of the ink’s weight, depending on the color. Solvent is added to the ink to adjust the ink’s viscosity. The choice of solvent and the amount added are highly dependent on the printing environment and the printing speed.

Using the ink as a two component ink

A two component ink has two components; the solvent and the hardener. This ink uses the i-300X hardener. Two component inks have a pot life of 8 hours.
Pour the printing ink into a mixing container and note the weight.
Add the hardener to the ink. The mixing ratio is 10 parts ink to 1 part hardener, i.e., 10% of the ink’s weight. Mix the ink and the hardener together.
The solvent, which should be between 10% and 35% of the ink’s weight, should then be added to the ink-hardener mixture.

Note, the ink-hardener-solvent mixture is chemically reactive and must be processed within 7–9 hours.

Printing Parameters: Pad Printing

Printing Plates (clichés) – Textiles
Use any commercially available clichés that are made of ceramic, photopolymer, laser, or steel plates. The recommended cliché depth is 35 μm for standard prints and 50μm for half tones.

Printing Plates (clichés) – Hard goods/ rubber substrates
Use any commercially available clichés that are made of ceramic, photopolymer, laser, or steel plates. The recommended cliché depth is 20 μm for standard prints and 35μm for half tones.

Printing pads
Use silicone printing pads. The ink works regardless of the hardness (durometer) of the pad. 60 – 65 Durometer for textiles.
Printing machines
The Natron ST Series is suitable for both closed-cup and open-ink well machines. Use the appropriate thinner for the correct type of machine. For open ink wells, use slower pad printing ink solvents (thinners).

Printing Parameters: Screen printing

For screen printing, use any of the commonly available polyester meshes and solvent-resistant emulsions. Use 110–156 mesh (mesh per inch)-count screens for the highest opacity and on dark substrates. Use a mesh count of 230 for fine details.

Compliance, Certifications and Resources

Natron® Ink Catalog

Natron® Ink Application Chart

RoHS

Ink Color Chart

ST Ink

CPSIA

Mixing instructions

Prop 65 compliance

ST Series and the Environment

The ST Series pad printing ink is non-toxic ink that is made with pigments that don’t fade and don’t contain any heavy metals. Additionally, it is eco-sustainable, meaning that it does not contain:

Alogens
Animal origin ingredients
Azo dyes
Bisphenol A (BPA)
Formaldehyde
G-B ester
Latex
Melamine
PAH
Persistent organic pollutants
Phthalates

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need hardener In the Ink for tagless printing?

Yes. We recommend adding at least 10% – 15% of inks weight into the ink.

Adding the i-300X hardener allows the printed tags to pass over 50 industrial wash cycles. Without the hardener, the printed labels will start to fade after 15 industrial wash cycles.

Still have Question? Just ask

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