Poly blends are killing me!

[ericheartsu]

i cannot seem to grasp soft prints on poly blended garments, printed on our manual.

Right now i have 7 jobs lined up that are 3+ colors on dark poly garments, and i've tried using gray barrier base, poly white, even gray discharge as bases, and i still get bleeding or rough prints, that look dull. My dryer is set around 310degrees when i do these tees, normally i keep my dryer at 335degrees.

Any tips or suggestions?

[Dottonedan]

Some say they have ran the shirts through te dryer once before printing. I don't know if that will help much on the poly factor.  Major people do that for swears, drying any moisture out. Some think it helps with poly dyes as well. As in to get it to migrate before printing but I doUbt that is real affective. Seems to me, it might compound the problem.

Now, for me, I'm thinking you can't get a soft hand on poly ( and get bright whites) or bright colors at the same time.  One way to get then to be lighter in hand, is to discharge the underbase. Now we know that a portion of this will not be affected due to the poly content and discharge not worki g on poly. What it can do for you is take the punch out of your garment color. Let's say that now a navy 50/50 discharged us about 65% lighter. (that is that much less) that will migrate. So it decreases your migration and also provides a softer hand since you now don't need to slam 3 pounds of white base ink on it for it to be bright and for it to block dye migration.

To me, printing on poly blends is Not going to get you bright colors that are blocked without laying down a sheet of plastic.

[ScreenFoo]

I'm curious as to the effectiveness of pre-print voodoo as Dan describes as well--I know sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't in practice, it'd be wonderful to learn why though.

If you're experimenting with inks and technique and having issues, I'd look to the garment first--I've had blends that it didn't seem to matter what I did, crap was the result.  If you're doing customer supplied stuff that isn't within the realm of quality brand blanks, it can be a real PITA...

[ericheartsu]

Primarily we are doing Tultex or American Apparel 50/50 or tri blends.

I've tried using discharge with not very good results esp. on the Tultex. We did runs with white and Gray discharge, but i'm wondering if those are the wrong colors?

i've also tried pre-running through the dryer, that didn't seem to help much either!

[Get Shirts]

While not the most efficient method, hit that print with a heat press after the oven.  Doing so will reduce, if not resolve, your rough print.

[JBLUE]

Easiest fix is a smoothing screen. Makes a Huge improvement on the finished print with blends.

[Nation03]

I didn't know so many people have issues with printing 50/50 blends. Most of the work we do is 50/50s. We use One Stroke Versamax white. Rarely have bleeding issues unless its a crappy 100% poly garment with a poor dye lot. I almost always have a smooth print. Generally use a 110 mesh screen p/f/p. Coated once on the print side and twice on the squeegee side.

[brandon]

On American App's 50/50's and triblends for white we use Matsui Opaque White water base print flash print. You would be surprised at the results. Soft hand and yes, white. While not the "bling" white of plastisol it takes care of any hand issues the client might have. Especially if there is a lot of ink coverage in the design. And in my opinion easier to print with. I am out of town but on Tuesday when I get back I should post some pics. Oh and make sure it is the Opaque White, not any of their mixing or other stand alone whites.

[Get Shirts]

I'm not sure if he's talking about 50/50's,  sounds like a tri blend issue.  The smoothing screen is the definite fix, if you're on an auto, but he's pulling the squeegee on a manual.

[Prosperi-Tees]

The smoothing screen works great on a manual as well, just have to hit it right after the flash, not good for long runs unless you have an all heads down press and someone hitting the smoothing screen.

[ericheartsu]

We tend to have more issues on our manual with this type of stuff then on our auto.

On the Auto i can get the smoother print, but i have issues still with the dye migration! this has been on everything from AA 50/50s and triblends, to Tultex blends.

[ScreenFoo]

I only have one other guess--overflashing?  Have had issues with someone doing this--he swore up and down that the dryer was set up to nail 320, but never dropped the heat on the flash.

[Screened Gear]

I just did some AA 50/50 and they were bleeders. I don't do alot of 50/50 (maybe 2-5 orders a month) but this is what I do. Use the ink straight if you can. It will have less of a chance to bleed. Then if you have to reduce it use softhand base not curable reducer. In my experience curable reducer makes bleeding worse - the experts say it will not. I have seen it and tested it just to make sure. Next bleeding happens at higher temps. Keep your dryer at the lowest temp you can to get a full cure. That is really it. If none of this helps then you just have a bad batch of shirts and they are going to bleed. I have ran shirts though the dryer before printing and I didn't have issues with those but I also had the rest of my set up correct. I would guess your dryer is just too hot at some point in in side the chamber. Make sure to really reach in there to get the temp. Again this is just my experience, I am just trying to help.

[RICK STEFANICK]

i cannot seem to grasp soft prints on poly blended garments, printed on our manual.

Right now i have 7 jobs lined up that are 3+ colors on dark poly garments, and i've tried using gray barrier base, poly white, even gray discharge as bases, and i still get bleeding or rough prints, that look dull. My dryer is set around 310degrees when i do these tees, normally i keep my dryer at 335degrees.

Any tips or suggestions?

If you can work wtih waterbase inks then at least try the RUTLAND HSA.. You will get the results your looking for.

[brandon]

Here is a sample of what I was talking about. American Apparel 50/50. All water base. Opaque Matsui White (make sure it is the Opaque White and not mixing white), Matsui Pigments, and CCI Base. Underbase Opaque White / flash / colors wet on wet. No underbase beneath the blue. Screens 230 and 156's. A few hundred shirts, runs easy. Set up and go. Hardly any hand and none after washing. Photo is after washing.