Printing Striped Sleeves..

[starchild]

Is printing striped sleeves on assembled shirts doable? or maybe heat transfer because it's cured at the same time?

[Frog]

Is it the extra seams that are giving you concern?
Are you printing above the top stripe, or below the bottom one? How many are there?
If it's a candidate for screen printing over heat transfers otherwise, depending on print location, why not treat the seam like it's the bottom seam, and either hang it over the edge of the sleeve or locket board, or build up the area around it with neoprene or Masonite or something.

[starchild]

No I meant actually printing stripes onto an already assembled sleeve.. This will give the ability to do custom colorways and patterns..  The more I think about it, I see screen printing being impossible because one side of the stripe will have to lay on the dryer conveyor belt uncured.. Flashed and twice through the dryer is unreasonable.. So I guess its a matter of the quality of the stripe termination beneath the armpits if heat transferred- and the dwell time for the heat to travel through to the other side of the sleeve to remelt the ink..

Maybe there's a good reason why these are cut/print/sew.. Or is there?  It's just a procedure that's never discussed..

These stripped shirts are not only of a percieved higher value but is actually a higher value because of the price paid from supplier for them. Sometimes the simplest things are big or impossible challenges.. Stripes.

[mooseman]

Maybe not what you are looking for but why not just buy something like this
https://www.sportswearcollection.com/Item.aspx?site=XQIJYERCRG&ID=1731

[starchild]

I'm aware if Augusta shirts.. Augusta has their own agenda..

I want my stripes in my own pms colors or distressed or even a floral pattern if I so desire..

 We spend thousands and thousands of dollars on equipment/advancement and can't get a stripe on a shirt sleeve?

[mimosatexas]

Wouldn't vinyl be the easiest option here?  Press it in sections.

[blue moon]

cut and sew is the way to go. You can also talk to Action Engineering as they make platens that you can rotate and print the other side of the garment. I am sure they could redesign it to work with the sleeves as long as you are willing to pay for it.

pierre

[starchild]

Heat pressing is viable but doing it in sections.. How will you get it to be a seamless continuous stripe where it would be seen? And doing it in parts would increase the labor cost.. I think the solution lies in the dwell time on the heat press to bring both sides of the sleeve to the remelt state.

[mk162]

yeah, you're printing a tubular garment, not easy.  the only way i see something like this working is modifying a cylindrical press to handle sleeves.

or like pierre said...cut and sew.

[starchild]

Ahh pierre I thought about a rotating barrel pallet and cap press sort a deal but how is it cured? And would it mean print and cure one sleeve at a time or increase the chances of spoilage by having a dangling wet sleeve while the other is printed? Simple print but almost impossible..

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[mk162]

yeah, or you can use a flash cure that will gel the ink after it's printed and then send it through a forced air gas dryer on both sides

[blue moon]

Ahh pierre I thought about a rotating barrel pallet and cap press sort a deal but how is it cured? And would it mean print and cure one sleeve at a time or increase the chances of spoilage by having a dangling wet sleeve while the other is printed? Simple print but almost impossible..

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I would flash one side, flip over, print the other side, run through the dryer and then flip and cure the first side. It seems like a lot of work, but you should be able to do hundreds per hour with a right crew and setup. If you are talking smaller qty, then the speed might not be as much of an issue. . .

This should be very doable, the only question is how many platens are you going to need and many hundreds of $$$ each. The sleeve setup should be cheaper than full size so it might actually not be as much money as you'd think.

pierre

[blue moon]

yeah, or you can use a flash cure that will gel the ink after it's printed and then send it through a forced air gas dryer on both sides

beat me to it!!!

pierre

[Action1]

cut and sew is the way to go. You can also talk to Action Engineering as they make platens that you can rotate and print the other side of the garment. I am sure they could redesign it to work with the sleeves as long as you are willing to pay for it.

pierre

There are ways to accomplish this. However,  I think that the required investment will probably be difficult to cost justify.
You would require a custom flip pallet.
Load Garment
Print first side
Flash and cool
At position 4 or 5 on your machine - you would want to remove a head and station someone there to flip the pallet for the other side of the sleeve print.
You will have gap between the front and back print - equal to the material thickness of the pallet - & the gap between you print and pallet edge - likely to be 3/16 - 1/4 inch.
Print
Flash
Cool
Unload.
It can be done - but our experience has been that no one wants to do it unless they have a machine that was designed to accomplish the flip station. The M&R Ovals used to have this ability, and probably still do. However - it's not a process that many companies have setup to do.

I'm with Pierre - Cut & sew this one.

[starchild]

I'm looking at mug heat presses now.. The only obstacle would be max diameter..

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