The range of Speedball Fabric Screen Printing Inks and Speedball Permanent Acrylic Screen Printing Inks, plus screen printing mediums are all available to order from the Sceen Printing section of this website, along with the popular Diazo Photo Emulsion system. The Speedball Fabric Screen Printing Inks are for use on cotton, polyester, blends, linen, rayon and other synthetic fibres (but not nylon). They also work well on paper and cardboard. The colours are wash fast to 40ºC when heat-set with an iron on the reverse of the print, and can either be screen printed or applied with a brush. The Speedball Permanent Acrylic Screen Printing Inks have been specifically formulated for use on paper, wood and cardboard.
This useful information has been sent to us by Rita Madsen, Director of Marketing for Speedball Art. We hope it will help when selecting screen printing supplies for your project:
‘Speedball is now beginning a round of comprehensive testing of both the new Jacquard and Permaset screen printing inks. We last tested Jacquard’s Versatex inks a few years ago and found them to be inferior. We will present the full results when complete. Until we have more details for you, here are a few points your can make when faced with questions on screen printing inks:
- AP Seal* – All Speedball inks are AP, Jacquard and Permaset are not. This is important for schools and anyone concerned about toxicity.
- Open time. Longer open-time is code for “won’t dry”. You can easily extend the open time of Speedball inks with Speedball retarder base. If you want to work fast and speed the drying time of Jacquard inks there is not much you can do but wait or invest in a drying oven. Initial tests of Jacquard ink showed that the ink was still tacky after 24 hours.
- Speedball Inks have a softer hand.
- Speedball has been making, improving, and selling water based, nontoxic screen inks for 50 years. Jacquard bought a small textile ink company (Versatex) a few years ago. Then introduced their first screen printing ink (Jacquard ‘Professional’ Ink) 2 or 3 years ago. Most people have learned non-toxic screen printing with the Speedball system. Consumers will want a product they know and trust.
- Jacquard inks have an odour that is apparent just by smelling the jar. It becomes more pronounced when you are doing a print run–particularly since the open time is so long.
Speedball Inks are #1 for several reasons. Superior customer service and support, smooth workability, great coverage, rich colours, easy cleanup, 100% classroom safe, and soft hand.’
* The new AP (Approved Product) Seal, with or without Performance Certification, identifies art materials that are safe and that are certified in a toxicological evaluation by a medical expert to contain no materials in sufficient quantities to be toxic or injurious to humans, including children, or to cause acute or chronic health problems.