To produce a personalized environmentally friendly T-Shirt begin with a 100% ring spun certified organic cotton T-Shirt that is designed with double needle stitching and taped neck and shoulders.
Next, use a green/eco t shirt printing water-based ink that is specially mixed and leaves no ink print residue on the shirt. The ink used to print the T-Shirt design is prevented from cracking, peeling or being washed out. The result is a comfortable, easy to clean and soft to the touch eco-friendly T-Shirt to wear all summer.
These unique T-Shirts are printed with a process called REHANCE.
REHANCE creates printed fabric T-Shirts that converts the cotton on the molecular level and permits the fabric to stretch and breathe. Other benefits to employing the REHANCE printing process include a print, free from PVC phthalates, or solvents. The T-Shirt will not loose it shape or print design after tumbling around in the washing machine many times. In addition, a REHANCE printed garment will not shrink, produce a perfect color tone on tone match, and will work with fabrics that stretch or have different textures.
There are four basic components of screen-printing ink using the REHANCE method.
Pigments contain only trace heavy metals and the printing process permits the retention of excellent light- and wash-fastness. The green/eco printing water-based ink uses potable water as a carrier to suspend the pigment in the mixture. A cellulose-based thickener that is made from wood and is biodegradable is used. A synthetic acrylic binder that contains no vinyl structures of functional groups like chlorine or fluorine is used in this water-based ink.
The water-based ink is dye resistant and white shirts are printed and then dyed a color. For example, white shirts are printed with the REHANCE chemistry to print an overlay over the top of the water-based print design and the shirts are then dyed black.
The REHANCE process works when reactive dyes chemically attach themselves to cellulosic compounds like cotton and create a covalent bond between the dye molecule and the hydroxyl groups of a single oxygen atom bonded to a single hydrogen atom within the cellulose molecule. During the dye process, the REHANCE chemistry bonds to the hydroxyl groups or “dye sites” before the dyes do and permanent color is created on the shirt.
REHANCE is the technology used to stop dye from bonding to the shirt fabric and eliminates the need to dispose of dye waste. The REHANCE process makes it possible to print vibrant water-based designs on dark shirts without the use of plastisol ink that contains PVC and phthalates that are neither healthy nor environmentally friendly because both may leak into the wastewater stream after many cycles in the washer.