Need ideas how to fix this...

[TCT]

Thanks Colin, I'll take a pic of the print through a loupe and post it tomorrow. There is no penetrant in either of the inks.

[Screened Gear]

If you look at the print at the bottom you can see the outline on the text did discharge. It just didn't hold the Orange pigment. TCT know his stuff so it has to be the ink. Even if not poly held the pigment the print would still be more Orange then it is. This makes me put all my money on not enough binder in the ink.

Have you printed this bucket of ink before?

[DannyGruninger]

Depending on how many pcs it might be worth it to just reprint but before reprinting id try heat pressing it for a decent amount of time like 20-30 sec then do a wash test. I've played with inks that failed prior to me doing this so you might be able to save them.  I'm not deep enough into d charge waterbase colors yet to give much advise but something tells me it's not a cure issue rather an issue with the chemistry of that particular ink and garment. I've tested that same orange on 50/50 heather next level and never an issue but never on those shirts. Sometimes those blanks almost feel oily to me but who knows.

[tonypep]

Sorry but no salvage here. What were washing specs? Bleach?

[sqslabs]

Damn, that's a bummer Alex.. I personally never discharge 50/50's for this reason, as discharge ink and poly are like oil and water in my experience.  I'm guessing the flo ink may have something to do with the additional fade as well, have you used it on 50/50 with success before?  But all this is in the "hindsight" category, which judging by your post, you don't really need right now.

In regards to a fix, my suggestion would be to make a new base white film, and stroke it 5-10 points larger than what you have there now.  Run a plastisol base over the discharge print (the stoke will give you some wiggle room), and a flo orange plastisol on top.  You may have to run these manually as its gonna take a lot of adjustment (and time), but it will at least save you the blanks if the customer will go for it.

Good luck with it man, I'll be rooting for you..

[TCT]

OK so I'm heading in to work here shortly and looks like I have a long list of chores for this one.

Washing specs, no bleach. Even worse, after I ran a few of these through the dryer 3 times a friggin' wet sponge with minimal elbow grease effected the orange>

This was the first job from this particular bucket of orange. So that is now on the list. And everything I think of that has to be it. The white held on no problem(will post pics of the back once I get in) even on the machine washed ones.

We have printed on this particular shirt in the past and not had issues. In fact we have printed on them since we printed the faulty job(this orange job we didn't know there was a issue for a week and a half after delivery) and we called them yesterday and they said they look great.

The bummer is there are too many variables to easily determine the fault 100%. The 50/50 same shirts we printed since the bad order had D-Flow green, the recent ones came from TSC and the bad ones from alphabrodernightmare. I emailed our rep at TSC to see if he can find the country of origin for the shirts we got from them. The bad ones are from Nicaragua. That is reaching, but I don't want to leave anything out. The make up of the shirt or its origin theory kind of gets debunked when your consider the white held on fine.

The order is 700psc front and back, with close to 300 XXL's:-  I had thought about trying to print over it with a thicker stroke and re do them all manually but some of the letters may look hokey(not that that should bother them, considering the lame logo). The shirts were screwed up already, I don't want to give them a mediocre fixed shirt.

Thanks again everyone!

[tonypep]

If the pic was forwarded by customer get a few back if you want to answer question #2. Assuming you have the same lot # of the orange ink repeat the process. Try a few other ink colors and shirt brands and colors, being sure to include a 100% cotton. My guess is its a perfect storm of ink/garment compatibility. Sure the white worked but flo DCs are finicky animals.

[Ross_S]

I agree with Tony on the Fl. DC being finicky.  Also, from the first pic your white doesn't look cured all the way atleast in the center.  I'd check the shirt as well on the origin of where it was made and see if you have 2 different origins.  One may adhere better than the other due to the manufacturing process (Dyes used and material count).  Secondly I'd try 80/20 base to pigment with 4% activaor.  Sounds overkill but you are printing 50/50.

[TCT]

OK I just got in, here are some pics of the back print AFTER machine wash...



You can see the white is holding up fine.

Ross_S - what part are you saying for the 80/20? The white is just straight Rutland discharge white plus, and the orange is straight D-Flo. I didn't mess with any pigments...

[Colin]

I don't see any discharging of the garment where the orange ink was (as it is nowhere to be seen)?  Or am I missing something?

[sqslabs]

I don't see any discharging of the garment where the orange ink was (as it is nowhere to be seen)?  Or am I missing something?

I believe the back print was white only, and posted as a reference.

[Ross_S]

Alex;

Even though it's a RFU ink I would use a base with it to get more penetration per say.  I use to do this with the Rutland discharge white too it helped tremendously with penetration on triblends and so forth and also in my opinion created a softer feel.

Ross

[blue moon]

also, white tends to have a layer on top (which is what makes it chalky feeling). I don't see any of it in the picture which would lead me to believe that it washed off.

pierre

[Ross_S]

What Pierre just described is an issue with the White discharge RFU inks.  I couldn't think of how to word that earlier.

[Screened Gear]

Ok so to test...

Test the orange on a 100% black gildan. This will test the ink.

Then take the washed 50/50 shirt and print it again with the same inks. This will test if the shirt
If it prints ok after the washing then it was an oil or something on the shirt. I would have a hard time believing that the shirt had enough oil on it to do this. Plus if it did the white would of done something similar.

My bet is still on under-cure or bad ink. When I say under cure it could be the ink has a really high cure point for some reason, bad ink.