Gildan 42000 Polyester shirt - .Printing Challenges.

[Inkworks]

Is anybody else disliking these shirts for printing? We've been getting lots of orders for the black ones, and between the horrible dye migration and the fibrillation I'm having a tough time getting the print to look much better than just "okay" when I'm done.

This last batch was a simple red and white left-chest. I used a 135LX base screen of dye-block grey, cut with some poly white, top coats of 156LX poly white and poly red and the opacity still only comes out merely "pretty good" I even tried a smoothing screen after the base flash to little avail.

I think the shirt has a lot going for it with the cotton-like feel and wicking & anti-microbial properties, but right now it ranks among the very worst for dye migration and fibrillation. Normally on cotton a simple job like this would have gone 156 or even 230 base with top coats of 230 and come out looking smooth and opaque, crisp and clean.

Experiences? Ideas? Suggestions?

[mk162]

they are also sewn like crap too.  I ate an order of them because they fit like junk...a small order, but still.

I avoid them like the plague...there are so many better options out there.

[Inkworks]

The last few batches have had many really striped looking, they almost remind me of Freddy Krugers shirt.

[Homer]

I have some of those we ate too, they are horrendous shirts.  I only took them back because I didn't like them either, they feel greasy to me, not like a cotton or a poly. If I remember right, we had adhesive issues too...

[Inkworks]

Don't get me started on platen adhesive issues with them, we've found a good pre-warm of the platens with a base of web adhesive and then flash mist adhesive on top, but even then if you flash a lot, and you have to to get an opaque print, the adhesive can go from tough to get the shirt off the platen, to the shirt coming off like there is no adhesive on the platen at all in one revolution of the carousel.

[Prosperi-Tees]

They suck. Period. I only got a fair looking print after heat pressing them.

[cleveprint]

when our wholesale reps came in during the spring and told us to avoid those shirts, we did. im glad ive never had the pleasure of printing on them!!

[RICK STEFANICK]

we use a chino based back white(really runny) then flash. this really helps matt them down. then print your regular low bleed white, flash and proceed. you will get much better results. also  waterbase tack running the flashes helps with with the hold down problem as  they are really silky.

[alan802]

This is funny, I was going to start a thread about this shirt today.  Absolutely the worst shirt I've ever printed on, well, close to the 95% poly, 5% spandex Sportek shirt, they are almost the same.  We've printed about 1200 of these just the last few weeks on half a dozen jobs and I'm at my wits end.  I had a meeting with the sales staff and they could have cared less.  This shirt is going to make us look so bad because there is nothing to insure a really high quality print.  The bleed is horrific, fibrilation is some of the worst I've ever seen, and it takes a hunk of ink to cover and not bleed.  We had to run revolver on a simple yellow and white print on black and go down on mesh count to keep the bleed down, and that's with great poly white ink. 

I need a really good alternative that is priced comparably because the sales staff constantly went back to the price and that's what their customers are picking.  I'm telling them to not offer it and there are a thousand other shirts to choose from that won't make us look like chumps. 

[STAHLINMAN]

I was burned today by this shirt style.

I can echo the sentiments of the previous posts to the letter about this POS fabric that Gildan is passing as a printable surface.  Poor adhesion, fibrilllation, and dye migration all working together to get this time sensitive, complex imprint run completely rejected by the client!

As as result, tomorrow's production includes this imprint over again on different shirts (thank goodness), but before that a 75 mile round trip to pick up the replacements.

I'm advising my wholesale customers to avoid this product, and I am prepared to refuse any job where this shirt is chosen.  Am I crazy?

Does anyone have Gildan's response to claims made against this shirt?

Matt

[Frog]

I was burned today by this shirt style.

I can echo the sentiments of the previous posts to the letter about this POS fabric that Gildan is passing as a printable surface.  Poor adhesion, fibrilllation, and dye migration all working together to get this time sensitive, complex imprint run completely rejected by the client!

As as result, tomorrow's production includes this imprint over again on different shirts (thank goodness), but before that a 75 mile round trip to pick up the replacements.

I'm advising my wholesale customers to avoid this product, and I am prepared to refuse any job where this shirt is chosen.  Am I crazy?

Does anyone have Gildan's response to claims made against this shirt?

Matt

claims nade against this shirt?  I can assure you that the market will speak, If it sells, they will sell it. If it doesn't, they won't.
Fortunately, folks here have been warned.

[ericheartsu]

they def. aren't the best. But we've found that using a Gray blocking base works. Still really hard to get a super smooth print though. We've gotten close a couple of times though. Low mesh on the blocking base, and really high mesh on the highlights helps a bunch.

Next run we are going to try silicone on these.

[mk162]

my guess is silicone will fail as well.

my biggest complaint with these is the cut...they are freaky small

I don't offer them...I tell people they just plain suck

[ericheartsu]

the tests we've done with silicone have been fine, I don't see why it wouldn't work