Your Stop for Name Brand Screen Printing Adhesives
When you’re finally ready to start screen printing your new design on your material of choice, you’ll need to consider what type of adhesive you’re using. It’s important that you can keep your substrate on your pallet. If you don’t, your item will move underneath the printing surface. Using adhesive also helps for easy removal without any residue left behind.
There are also adhesives entirely made for bonding your screen mesh to the frame instantly. These are called mesh adhesives.
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Why Garston for Your Screen Printing Adhesive?
Affordable Prices
Garston prides itself on being an affordable screen printing supplier of all adhesive products.
Customer Satisfaction
Have questions? We’d love to answer them! Here at Garston we always answer all of your questions about screen printing adhesives with honesty and experience.
Name Brand Products
All of our screen printing adhesives are high-quality and sourced from trusted brands.
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Types of Screen Printing Adhesive
Spray Adhesive
The most common type of pallet adhesive is a spray adhesive, and you can find them in aerosol cans, and they will be sprayed on platens. Only use heat-resistant spray adhesive in flash cure jobs and web spray adhesives on heat substrates.
Water-Based Adhesive
For an affordable, mess-free solution to adhesives, you can check out our selection of water-based adhesives. This type is applied to the platen with either a brush, roller or squeegee. If you find that your adhesive is losing strength you can reactivate it with a wet sponge.
Bulk Adhesive
For shops with mass production and high volumes of prints each week, it’s common to find bulk adhesives in their inventory. You can find this adhesive type in gallon buckets and applit with a plastic spatula or brush.
Sheet Adhesive
Think of a sheet adhesive like double-sided tape. It’ll stick to your platen and hold the substrate in place. It doesn’t tend to hold its tackiness as long as other adhesives, so its mostly found in smaller shops.
Choosing The Right Screen Printing Adhesive
As with any element in screen printing or any industry for that matter – it is always difficult to know where to start when it comes to products. In the terms of adhesives, you have a few different choices. To help you narrow down your options – we’ll dive into the unique feature of each kind.
Spray Adhesive: Quick & Easy
The most common type of screen printing adhesive is the kind that comes in an aerosol can, known as spray adhesive. This cost-effective adhesive comes in a variety of different options depending on what manufacturer you choose.
It’s recommended to use a heat-resistant spray adhesive on projects that will be flash cured. For heavier adhesives like fleece, use a web spray adhesive.
Although these are the most popular type of adhesive used in the industry, there are some downsides that need to be addressed. Since it’s a spray, it’s bound to end up on nearby materials or equipment and can result in a buildup of adhesive on your platen or press. While you’re using spray adhesive, you need to be careful of where you spray and keep any equipment that can be damaged away during the process, this includes screens.
Water-Based Adhesive: Eco-Friendly Alternatives
Some screen printers steer away from spray adhesives due to the exposure of spray particles. If you’re looking for an eco-friendly alternative to sprays, you can look into water-based adhesives. This type is affordable, easy to use and even easier to clean up.
To apply a water-based adhesive, you can use a brush, roller, squeegee or an ink card. If you find that your water-based adhesive is losing its tackiness, simply wipe a wet sponge over your working area to reactivate it.
Bulk Adhesive: Large-Volume Printing
Similar to its name, bulk adhesive comes in large buckets or containers and is usually in the a liquid form. Its purpose is to be sprayed or brushed onto your pallet.
Due to its large size, bulk adhesive is ideal for large-volume printing businesses who use automatic presses.
Sheet Adhesive: Low-Volume Printing
Have you heard of pallet tape before? This type of tape is used to eliminate the need for cleaning up solvents and reducing the time it takes to normally clean your platen. Sheet adhesive is very similar, except for the added benefit of having tape (or a sticky sides) on both sides.
Sheet adhesive is mostly used for low-volume printers, because the adhesive doesn’t normally last long, similar to normal tape. After a few prints, you’ll need to regularly replace it, which can end up being costly if you have hundreds of prints.
Mesh Adhesive
Similar to the way that pallet adhesive keeps a garment onto a pallet, mesh adhesive is meant for bonding screen mesh to a frame instantly. Here at Garston we carry Murakami MS Bond 100 and Murakami MS Bond 300. Both of these mesh adhesives are designed to help the glue travel through the mesh and make direct contact with your frame, this helps to create a strong bond.
In order to properly apply your mesh adhesive, you need to make sure that all of the surfaces you intend to cover are clean and dry.
Screen Printing Adhesive FAQ
What Is a Mesh Adhesive?
To keep screen mesh bonded to a frame, you’ll need to use a mesh adhesive. To keep a strong adhesion, upon using this product, glue will need to penetrate through the mesh and meet with the frame.
Are Aerosol Adhesives Dangerous?
Using aerosol adhesives is an inexpensive alternative to water-based adhesives. Using copious amounts of aerosol is never recommended, but if you must use an aerosol adhesive that contains solvents or harmful adhesives, it’s important that you avoid swallowing them, or breathing in vapors and especially avoid getting them on your skin.
To properly dispose of a spray adhesive solvent, you must dispose them as hazardous waste. Normal aerosol cans can simply be disposed of in a dumpster as solid waste.
How Do I Apply a Water-Based Pallet Adhesive?
Applying a water-based pallet adhesive isn’t hard! All you need to do is apply a small amount of the adhesive onto your press (or where you intend to print), and spread it with an ink card or rag, and you’re all set!
Can I Use a Water-Based Adhesive for Printing on Fleece?
Water-based pallet adhesive is not ideal for any fleece lined garments. This type of lining will deactivate the glue, so it’s not recommended that you use it on this type of clothing.
Honest, Fair Prices On All Screen Printing Adhesive
When you’re researching screen printing suppliers in your area, we hope that you’ll consider Garston. We’re a leading supplier of screen printing adhesive throughout the country, and our aim is to provide the best products with the best customer service. Looking to order a screen printing adhesive, or have questions? Feel free to reach out to us at 860-289-3040