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screen printing => Newbie => Topic started by: Gilligan on December 21, 2012, 09:05:48 PM
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Alan (of TechSupportSPS) inspired this thread with his post here:
http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,5959.msg66190.html#msg66190 (http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,5959.msg66190.html#msg66190)
I've had issues with stretch testing. Sometimes I know it's cured because I put the temp gun to it and see over 400 degrees. Yet it still pulls apart. BUT this is with super thin deposits. I assumed that is the reason and that is normal.
But if so... then is the stretch test only valid for thicker deposits? How thick? It all gets kind of tricky.
We recently relocated our dryer and I've been super conscious of making sure things are cured coming out the dryer since moving it. I've noticed some odd things, luckily only on our personal shirts for employees and we are always doing something silly and either don't have the dryer full on or just flash then heat press for final cure.
Still makes me wonder.
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Stretch test should only be a ballpark estimate, and multiple washings the real definitive test. Then again, any failure for me has always shown on the first wash.
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Yeah, that is what we have seen on the initial heat press "cured" ones that my wife wanted to have done to make it smooth and shiny.
Now she cranks it WAY up to heat press it. :)
I know it's not definitive... just makes me nervous when a thin print pulls apart when stretching, knowing that is a sign of under cure. Even though I'm sure it got up to temp in the dryer.
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In depends on the ink deposit. If it's thin you may just be seeing the weave of the shirt.
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And except for stretch inks, the fabric can outstretch even cured ink.
Use restraint. It's a feel one develops and, as I mentioned, is not a stand-alone test.
It goes along with the other things you've learned about achieving cure with your equipment, like the adjustments that may be made for dark over light, or fleece vs. T's.
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All ink cracks when it gets to a certain point. A little more than a gental tug is all that is needed. If you print a bullet proof print you can pull harder because it takes more force to crack it. Ultimately it is a wash test that determines proper curing. After all that is what the end user is going to do with it. Go to the mall and tug on a few shirts. Most fail the simple tug test.