Guide
International Coatings Plastisol Ink: A Print Shop's Guide (Plus House-Brand Alternatives)
Total Ink Solutions
International Coatings is a US-based plastisol ink manufacturer based in Cerritos, California, known for their 7100 series whites, athletic plastisols, and stretch-friendly formulas. Their inks cure at 320°F (160°C) and run on standard screen printing setups — 156 to 230 mesh, 70-durometer squeegee, automatic or manual press. If you’ve been printing for more than a year, you’ve probably squeegeed a few buckets of theirs.
This article covers what International Coatings plastisol ink actually is, where it fits in a working print shop, how it compares to Wilflex, Union, Rutland, and Ecotex, and where our Total Ink Solutions house line slots in next to it. We’ll also cover curing, thinning, common problems, and the questions print shops ask us every week.
What is International Coatings plastisol ink?
International Coatings is one of the legacy plastisol manufacturers in the US market. They make PVC-based screen printing inks for cotton, polyester, and blends — the same chemistry every plastisol brand uses, just with their own resin/plasticizer ratio and pigment loading.
Their best-known lines:
- 7100 series — general-purpose plastisol, cures at 320°F
- Athletic plastisol — for high-stretch performance wear
- Direct print whites — opaque underbase and standalone whites
- Low-bleed inks — for 50/50 cotton/poly where dye migration is a risk
- Fashion soft hand inks — softer feel for retail-grade prints
The ink is plastisol — which means it’s a suspension of PVC resin particles in plasticizer. It doesn’t dry. It cures when you heat the entire ink film to 320°F. Below that temperature, it’s still wet underneath even if the surface looks set.
How plastisol ink works (and why every print shop runs it)
Plastisol is the workhorse ink of the apparel industry. There’s a reason about 90% of decorated t-shirts in the US are printed with it.
What’s in it: PVC resin particles suspended in plasticizer, plus pigment, fillers, and additives. No water, no solvent that evaporates. The ink sits in the bucket forever as long as it doesn’t get above ~250°F.
How it cures: The plasticizer absorbs into the PVC particles when the ink film hits 320°F throughout. The particles swell, fuse, and form a flexible plastic film bonded to the shirt fibers. Under-cured ink cracks and washes out. Over-cured ink scorches the fabric and can dull the color.
How you print it:
- Screen mesh: 110-156 for whites and underbases, 200-230 for halftones and detail
- Squeegee: 70-durometer for most work, 60 for whites, 80 for fine detail
- Off-contact: 1/16” to 1/8” off the platen
- Flood stroke, then a firm print stroke
- Flash between colors if wet-on-wet won’t work
- Final cure: 320°F through the full ink film (use a donut probe or temp gun on the ink surface, not the belt)
That’s the whole game. The brand on the bucket changes the feel, the opacity, and the bleed resistance — but the process is the same.
International Coatings vs Wilflex vs Union vs Rutland vs Ecotex vs Total Ink
Here’s how the major plastisol brands compare on the metrics that matter when you’re choosing what to load in your press.
| Brand | Origin | Cure temp | Known for | Price tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Ink Solutions | New Jersey (house brand) | 270-320°F | Full range, low-cure options, mixing systems | $ |
| International Coatings | California | 320°F | Athletic inks, 7100 whites | $$ |
| Wilflex (PolyOne) | Global | 320°F | Epic series, mixing systems, retail soft hand | $$$ |
| Union Ink | New Jersey | 320°F | Maxopake, Unicure low-cure, classic workhorse | $$ |
| Rutland | North Carolina | 320°F | NPT (non-phthalate), M3 line, athletic | $$ |
| Ecotex | US import | 320°F | Budget-friendly, growing color range | $ |
The truth is, all six of these brands print well if you run them right. The differences show up in three places: opacity (especially in whites), bleed resistance on poly, and hand feel on retail garments. A shop that prints 200 shirts a day with one ink line builds muscle memory around it — switching brands is more disruptive than the actual performance difference.
Where we land: we make our own plastisol because we got tired of paying distributor markup on inks we knew weren’t any better than what we could formulate ourselves. We sell International Coatings, Wilflex, Union, and Rutland too — but the house line is priced fairly and tuned for working shops.
Total Ink Solutions plastisol — our house line
If you’ve come to this article looking for International Coatings, you’re price-shopping or brand-shopping. Either way, here’s what we offer next to it.
For 100% cotton: - General Purpose White Plastisol Ink – 100% Cotton — our daily-driver white for cotton tees - General Purpose Plastisol Ink Colors For 100% Cotton — full color range, cotton-optimized
For cotton/poly blends (most retail garments): - All Purpose Plastisol Ink – White – For Cotton, Polyester & Blends — opaque white that prints clean on 50/50 and tri-blends - All Purpose Plastisol Ink For Cotton & Poly Blends — color line matched to the white above
For 50/50 where dye migration is a concern: - Bleed Resistant Plastisol Ink For 50/50 Cotton/Poly Blends - Bleed Resistant 5-Star Bright White CQ Plastisol Ink Cotton & 50/50 Blends — our brightest, hardest-blocking white
For 100% polyester / performance wear: - Stretch Plastisol Ink For 100% Polyester & Performance Fabrics — flexes with the garment, low bleed
For low-temp curing (poly, sublimated garments, energy savings): - Extreme 270° Low Cure Plastisol Ink White - Extreme 270° Low Cure Plastisol Ink Cotton & 100% Polyester Blends — cures at 270°F instead of 320°F
If you’re running International Coatings 7100 white right now and want a direct swap, the bleed-resistant 5-Star is our closest match on opacity. If you’re running their athletic line, the Stretch Plastisol is the comparable formula.
Specialty plastisol — neon, metallic, glitter, reflective
Most plastisol orders are PMS-matched solids on cotton. The specialty inks are where margins live.
Neon plastisol (including neon green) is fluorescent pigment in a clear plastisol base. It’s translucent — print it over a white underbase or it disappears on dark shirts. Cure same as standard: 320°F.
Metallic plastisol uses real metal flake (aluminum, bronze, copper) suspended in clear base. Mesh count matters here — run 86 to 110 mesh so the flakes pass through. Anything finer clogs.
- Metallic Plastisol Ink — 24K gold metallic, our most popular metallic
- Pink Shimmer Plastisol Ink — pink with a metallic shimmer finish
Glitter plastisol is even chunkier than metallic — actual polyester glitter flakes. Use 38 to 60 mesh. Print as a single hit over a flashed underbase color (the underbase shows through the glitter and tints it).
Reflective plastisol uses glass bead pigment that reflects light back at the source. Mesh: 60 to 86. The reflective effect only shows when light hits it directly — looks gray in normal light.
Four-color process is its own world. Four Color Process Plastisol Ink – CMYK Series gives you the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black tuned for halftone work on white shirts. Run 230 to 305 mesh, tight registration, and a rotated halftone screen pattern.
Curing plastisol ink — temperature, time, testing
Cure is the single most common place new and intermediate shops fail. The ink looks dry, the shirts feel printed, you ship the order, and three washes later the customer’s print is cracked.
The rule: 320°F throughout the entire ink film. Not the surface. Not the belt. The full ink thickness, all the way down to the fabric.
How to verify cure:
- Donut probe — the gold standard. Lay it on a freshly printed shirt, run it through the dryer, read the peak temp. Should hit 320°F (or whatever your specific ink calls for).
- Temp gun — point at the ink surface the second it exits the dryer. Decent gut check, but reads surface only.
- Stretch test — pull the printed area side to side. If the ink cracks instead of flexing back, it’s under-cured.
- Wash test — wash the shirt 3-5 times in hot water. Under-cured ink fades or flakes. This is the only test the customer cares about.
Cure times in common dryers:
| Dryer type | Belt speed | Typical cure time |
|---|---|---|
| Gas conveyor (BBC, Vastex, M&R) | 18-25 in/min | 60-90 seconds at 320°F |
| Electric conveyor (small shop) | 12-18 in/min | 2-3 minutes |
| Flash + heat press (cure with heat press) | n/a | 35-45 sec at 320°F, medium pressure |
Heat-press curing works if you don’t have a dryer. Flash the print on press to gel the ink, then finish-cure under a heat press at 320°F for 35-45 seconds with a Teflon sheet or parchment paper. Not as fast as a conveyor, but it cures properly.
Low-cure plastisol like our Extreme 270° line drops the cure temp to 270°F. Useful for:
- 100% polyester where 320°F triggers dye migration
- Sublimated garments
- Shops trying to cut gas/electric bills
- Older dryers that can’t reliably hit 320°F across the full belt width
Plastisol vs water-based vs discharge
| Spec | Plastisol | Water-based | Discharge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | PVC + plasticizer | Water + acrylic binder | Water + activator (ZFS) |
| Cure | 320°F (or 270°F low-cure) | 320°F or air dry + heat set | 320°F + steam activation |
| Sits on fabric | Yes — film on top | Soaks in, becomes the fabric | Replaces dye in the fibers |
| Hand feel | Soft to plasticky | Very soft, “no hand” | No hand at all |
| Color on dark shirts | Excellent (with underbase) | Poor without underbase | Excellent on 100% cotton only |
| Press time | Easy to set up | Dries in screens — work fast | Dries in screens — work fast |
| Shelf life on press | All day | 30-60 min before screen blocks | 6-8 hours after activator added |
| Best use | 90% of orders | Retail soft-hand printing | Vintage-look prints on cotton |
| Difficulty | Beginner-friendly | Intermediate | Advanced |
Plastisol wins on ease and reliability. Water-based wins on hand feel. Discharge wins on hand feel and saturation, but only on 100% cotton with reactive dyes — it does nothing on poly and inconsistently on cotton blends.
For most print shops, plastisol is 80-90% of the ink they buy. Water-based and discharge get added when a customer specifically asks for them or when fashion soft hand becomes a brand standard.
Plastisol ink thinners, reducers, and additives
Plastisol shouldn’t need thinning in most cases. If it’s printing thick or dragging, it’s usually too cold (warm it up — plastisol viscosity drops with temperature) or the squeegee angle/pressure is off.
When you do need to thin, use a plastisol reducer (sometimes called curable reducer). It cuts viscosity without destroying the cure chemistry. Don’t use water — plastisol is oil-based, water will ruin the bucket.
Other additives a print shop runs through regularly:
- Soft hand base — extends the ink and softens the print. Use 10-30% by weight.
- Stretch additive — for athletic and performance wear.
- Low-bleed additive — added to standard inks for 50/50 jobs when you don’t have a dedicated low-bleed line.
- Puff additive — turns standard plastisol into puff ink. Mixes at 10-15%.
Mix additives by weight, not volume, with a plastisol ink mixer — a drill-mounted paddle or a dedicated mixer. Hand-stirring with a paint stick works for small touch-ups but doesn’t get the additive evenly distributed in a full gallon.
Plastisol screen print transfers
Plastisol transfers are pre-printed plastisol on release paper. You apply them with a heat press at 320°F for 8-12 seconds, 40-50 psi. They have the same wash durability as direct prints if the original transfer was cured to gel stage (not full cure) at the manufacturer.
When to use transfers instead of direct printing:
- Small quantity orders where setup time outweighs print time
- Mixed garment colors/sizes in one order
- Print-on-demand workflow
- Sleeves, hoods, pant legs — anywhere the press can’t easily reach
The same plastisol that prints directly can be screened onto transfer paper. Most of our customers who run plastisol transfers also run direct print — it’s not either/or.
Troubleshooting plastisol problems
Ink won’t fully cure. - Dryer too cold, belt too fast, or print too thick. Verify with a donut probe. - Heavy white underbase needs longer dwell time than a single-color print.
Ink cracks after washing. - Under-cured. See above. - Or the ink film is too thick — try a higher mesh count.
Color bleeds through on 50/50 or poly. - Dye migration. The polyester dye is gassing out at cure temp and tinting your white. - Switch to a bleed-resistant ink or our Bleed Resistant 5-Star CQ White, or drop to a low-cure 270°F ink.
Ink fibrillates (fuzzy look after washing). - The shirt fibers are pushing through the ink film. Lay down a thicker underbase or add a soft-hand base for better flexibility.
Pinholes in the print. - Lint or dust on the screen, or under-cured emulsion letting ink seep through. Clean screens, increase exposure time.
Ink dries in the screen. - It shouldn’t. Plastisol doesn’t air-dry. If it’s drying in the screen, the screen is sitting under your dryer’s exhaust or a flash unit is too close. Move them.
Best white plastisol ink — what to actually buy
White is the hardest plastisol to formulate. It needs to be opaque, bright, flexible, and bleed-resistant — and those properties fight each other. Here’s how we’d rank the whites we sell, by job type:
Best all-around white for 50/50 and tri-blends: Bleed Resistant 5-Star Bright White CQ — our brightest, hardest-blocking white. Holds back red and royal dye migration.
Best value white for 100% cotton: General Purpose White Plastisol Ink – 100% Cotton — clean, opaque, prints fast.
Best low-temp white: Extreme 270° Low Cure White — for performance wear and dye-migration-prone shirts.
Best universal white: All Purpose Plastisol Ink – White — one bucket for cotton, blends, and most polys. Good shop default.
Compared to International Coatings 7100 white, our 5-Star CQ is comparable on opacity and tested better in our shop on red 50/50s. The 7100 is a proven formula, no argument — but you’re paying distributor markup for it.
Frequently asked questions
What is plastisol ink made of?
Plastisol ink is made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) resin particles suspended in plasticizer, plus pigment, fillers, viscosity modifiers, and sometimes additives like UV blockers or bleed inhibitors. It contains no water and no evaporating solvent — which is why it doesn’t dry in the screen and needs heat to cure.
Is Speedball ink plastisol?
Speedball makes both water-based and plastisol-style inks, but their consumer “Fabric Screen Printing Ink” is water-based acrylic, not true plastisol. Speedball doesn’t sell traditional commercial plastisol. If you need real plastisol, buy from a print shop supplier — not a craft store.
What’s the difference between plastisol and water-based ink?
Plastisol sits on top of the fabric as a flexible plastic film and cures at 320°F. Water-based ink soaks into the fibers and becomes part of the fabric, with a much softer hand. Plastisol is easier to print and more opaque on dark shirts. Water-based feels better but requires more skill and faster work.
How do you cure plastisol ink with a heat press?
Flash the print on the press first to gel the ink, then finish-cure under a heat press at 320°F for 35-45 seconds with medium pressure and a Teflon sheet or parchment paper between the platen and the ink. Verify cure with a stretch test and a wash test before shipping the order.
Can you thin plastisol ink?
Yes — use a curable plastisol reducer, not water or solvents. Add 5-10% by weight and mix thoroughly. In most cases you don’t need to thin — warming the ink to room temperature or 80-90°F is usually enough to drop viscosity for clean printing.
What temperature does plastisol cure at?
Standard plastisol cures at 320°F (160°C) throughout the entire ink film. Low-cure plastisol like our Extreme 270° line cures at 270°F (132°C). Surface temperature isn’t enough — the heat has to penetrate the full ink thickness, which usually takes 60-90 seconds in a gas conveyor dryer.
What’s the best mesh count for plastisol ink?
110-156 mesh for whites and underbases, 200-230 for halftones and color detail, 60-86 for specialty inks like glitter and metallic. Lower mesh = thicker ink deposit = more opacity. Higher mesh = thinner deposit = finer detail.
How long does plastisol ink last on a shirt?
A properly cured plastisol print survives 40-80+ wash cycles in normal home laundry without significant cracking or fading. Under-cured prints fail in 3-5 washes. Print durability depends more on cure quality than ink brand — a cheap ink cured right outlasts a premium ink cured wrong.
What’s the shelf life of plastisol ink in the bucket?
Plastisol has effectively unlimited shelf life if stored sealed at room temperature, away from heat. We have customers using 5-year-old buckets that print fine after a remix. Keep the lid on tight to prevent skinning, and don’t store it next to a flash unit or in a hot warehouse.
Can you print plastisol on polyester?
Yes — use a low-cure plastisol (270°F) or a stretch/poly-specific ink to avoid dye migration and to flex with the fabric. Standard 320°F plastisol on 100% polyester risks both bleed-through (poly dye gassing into the white) and cracking (rigid ink on stretchy fabric).
What’s the difference between plastisol and discharge ink?
Plastisol sits on top of the fabric as a PVC film. Discharge ink uses an activator (ZFS) to chemically remove the shirt’s dye, replacing it with new pigment so the print becomes part of the fabric with zero hand. Discharge only works on 100% cotton with reactive dyes and has a 6-8 hour shelf life after activation. Plastisol works on everything and lasts indefinitely.
Is International Coatings ink better than Wilflex or Union?
No brand is objectively better — they’re all proven commercial inks. International Coatings has a strong reputation for athletic and 7100 whites. Wilflex is known for the Epic mixing system. Union is the New Jersey legacy brand with Maxopake and Unicure. Pick based on what your local supplier stocks, what your shop is dialed in on, and what your customers’ garments need. Switching brands mid-job is more disruptive than the actual performance gap.
We’ve been mixing and selling plastisol out of New Jersey for years. We carry International Coatings, Wilflex, Union, and Rutland when our customers want them — and we make our own line for the shops who’d rather skip the distributor markup. Call us, email us, or come see the warehouse. The person who answers the phone is the same person who’ll be on your order. That’s the whole pitch.