Poly White prints

[ericheartsu]

How does everyone print their poly whites? We've been doing a TON of them lately, and I feel there is some room for improvement.

Typically we will do a 166 base, and a 230 highlight. Usually the flash is set around 220 degrees in between each color, and our dryer is set for them to go through pretty quickly at a higher temp. We are using the topscore poly white.

How does everyone else print them?

[alan802]

If it's the performance poly garment like the under armour then our mesh counts are similar to yours, a little lower on the highlight but still close in ink deposit, 150/48 to 225 depending on detail and many other variables.  The PITA poly shirts that are made to feel like cotton we go way down in mesh count to anything from 90/71 to 120/54 and they bleed so bad that we've had to go back to the underbase gray that we all hate to print but it's the only thing that will block the bleed without have 500 microns of an ink deposit.

[ericheartsu]

it's not so much they are bleeding they just looks so dull

[Admiral]

135 base, 150 highlight usually

If it's the performance poly garment like the under armour then our mesh counts are similar to yours, a little lower on the highlight but still close in ink deposit, 150/48 to 225 depending on detail and many other variables.  The PITA poly shirts that are made to feel like cotton we go way down in mesh count to anything from 90/71 to 120/54 and they bleed so bad that we've had to go back to the underbase gray that we all hate to print but it's the only thing that will block the bleed without have 500 microns of an ink deposit.

We did one of those types of garments.  Fibers come up through the ink and like to bleed a lot.  Did underbase clear blocker, poly white, poly yellow on top of those.  It still wasn't perfect but looked decent.  We basically black listed that garment type...Performance grey underbase would probably work better but it would still be the same amount of work and be very annoying to deal with.

[bulldog]

Is there a specific brand/style that you're talking about as the PITA poly? I wouldn't mind getting a couple and trying them out just so I can see what happens and be prepared for it. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to mention the brand here.

[jvanick]

Gildan 42000 are the absolute worst.  You figure out how to get a great print on those, I'll bet anything else will be childsplay.

We've been printing TONS of the A4 'Performance Cooling' A4 N3142... for the customers that want a decent 'shiny' performance shirt at a decent price point, they're our go-to.  I've lost track how many cases we've gone through this past year.

we even did a run of black waterbase on them a few months back for some friends (tried it as an experiment.. not only worked perfectly, but Tiffany kept one for running, and has been washing it weekly (sometimes more), and the print is holding up nicely.  (Didn't know that you could do waterbase on poly wicking...)

[ericheartsu]

we are about to print 500 of the 42000s, so i'm not super excited at all for that.

We've been getting hung up on alot of the bella poly stuff lately.

[jvanick]

We've been getting hung up on alot of the bella poly stuff lately.

what kind of problems are you having with it?   We print on the Bella and Canvas blends all the time and get really nice prints.

[ericheartsu]

my biggest issue is that the prints look really dull. they do not pop at all.

[jvanick]

how much pressure are you using on your squeegees?  I found that you really need to back off and let the ink sit on the surface vs driving it in.  Last run I believe we were at like 25 psi and a 70/90/70 squeegee.

[ericheartsu]

how much pressure are you using on your squeegees?  I found that you really need to back off and let the ink sit on the surface vs driving it in.  Last run I believe we were at like 25 psi and a 70/90/70 squeegee.

crazy. we are doing some bella 8880s today. i'll give it a shot!

[alan802]

The 2 worst shirts to print on are the Gildan 4200 and the Sport Tek ST700.  I've been battling the sales staff on these 2 shirts and  I'm not winning.  Even after showing them the difference between the same design printed on a good shirt versus one of these they don't get it.  They just think we need to figure out the secret to printing on them and although we can technically make these look ok, it takes 2 bases and sometimes multiple strokes on those bases to get an acceptable color pop.  Then we're talking about a bullet proof print and even a slight showing of bleeding.  Then we're dangerously close to not curing these garments because I'm right on the line of time and temp to keep bleeding to a minimum.  We've got 150 pieces to do today with a sim process design so we have to use high mesh screens so there is no telling what we'll have to do to make these look decent.