507 Soft Hand Additive
Excalibur’s 507PF Soft Hand Extender Base is a balanced additive that is a combination extender, penetrant and flow agent. This additive can be added to any Excalibur Phthalate-Free Plastisol ink to not only extend the ink and soften the hand-feel of the finished print it also reduces the viscosity and improves the flow of the ink thus helping the ink clean completely from the screen mesh. Even though it can be used in any quantity the following precautions should be taken when mixing 507PF into Excalibur plastisols. It is recommended that 507PF be used in combination with the 500PF, 533PF or 550PF Series and only be printed directly onto white or light-coloured backgrounds.
Always stir any plastisol ink thoroughly prior to adding to the screen in order to break down the false body that builds up during storage. This should always be done prior to adding 507PF Curable Reducer to any ink. If 507PF is added before stirring it could cause the mixed ink to be too thin to produce the desired print. If using an ink paddle with a variable speed drill always set drill to turn on a slow speed to not allow any heat from the friction of stirring to build up in the ink. Introducing heat to the ink will begin the gelling process and make the ink more difficult to print.
Adding 507PF to any high-opacity ink that will be printed directly onto dark backgrounds will diminish opacity and should not be added. For this reason best results are attained by adding no more than 1% of 502PFViscosity Reducer by weight to any high-opacity ink that is being printed directly onto dark backgrounds.
Adding too much 507PF will diminish the film strength of the finished print and could possibly cause “fibrillation” where the fiber of the shirt stands up during the washing process and breaks through the ink film causing the print to appear faded. Fibrillation can also look as if the print is undercured. In order to determine if the print has “fibrillated” or is “undercured” simply wet your thumb or rub a wet cloth over the print. If the colors in the print darken and appear stronger or more vibrant the shirt is “fibrillating”. If the print looks the same after wetting it is probably undercured and needs to be cured longer in your conveyor oven.
507PF Curable Reducer will increase the chances for dye migration on 50/50 poly/cotton blends or 100% polyester fabrics and should not be added to any ink being printed on those type fabrics. 1501PF SportPro Curable Reducer should be used instead.