How do I screen print on sweaters?

[nismoasfuh]

Hey guys, been a huge lurker for quite a while now. Finally decided to join up! I have to run a job tomorrow that requires silver metallic ink on blue hoodie/sweaters. I have never printed on a thick material like this. And not to mention that my silver metallic is the softest/ wateriest ink i have ever used. Are there any tips you guys can offer me for printing on hoodies/sweaters with a really soft ink? I might even have to flash it as the silver on the blue wont be fully opaque unless i do so. Just looking for any input really before i tackle this tomorrow morning.

Thanks!

[Frog]

First off, welcome.
Second, what ink are you using and what mesh? (or what mesh had you planned?)
Fleece only jobs can often benefit from a slightly coarser mesh than the same print on a T would take.
It is still likely that you may need to print-flash-print this.

If you have never done fleece before, prepare for a little more work sticking them down than T's took.
What adhesive are you using? With sprays, for instance, it is not uncommon to spray each time.
With waterbased, really frequent de-linting and rejuvenation is par for the course.

[farmboygraphics]

What Frog said and you may want to burn a screen to under base the metallic. You may or may not need it, but can't hurt.

[jhinkle]

i suggest putting down a base as it will make the ink standout more.
More and important than that is make sure you have enough off-contact or you will be pulling the ink right off the shirt when the screen lifts up making your prints ROUGH

[TCT]

Just echoing here, but welcome and what ink is it? I'm not sure if they make it anymore, but I had some International Coatings metallic from when we opened, and it was a pain to cure. From my understanding the "metallic characteristics" specs or whatever were not plastic and were actually reflecting the heat from our dryer(electric) at the time. A gas dryer fixed the problem, but that is kind of a extreme solution

[Frog]

Just echoing here, but welcome and what ink is it? I'm not sure if they make it anymore, but I had some International Coatings metallic from when we opened, and it was a pain to cure. From my understanding the "metallic characteristics" specs or whatever were not plastic and were actually reflecting the heat from our dryer(electric) at the time. A gas dryer fixed the problem, but that is kind of a extreme solution

I cut my metallic teeth with Union's Silver Metallic and a four foot Ranar Scamp, so with care and a little more time, it can cure just fine, but yes, the tech sheet does warn that one must compensate for the inherent reflectivity.
btw, that ink had the misfortune of exhibiting  the worst characteristics of both thick and thin inks! Stiff when printing, and thin, and wanting to flow through open areas when sitting.

[nismoasfuh]

Wow! Thanks for the welcomes and the great information and replies. I'm using Union ink  Ef bright silver shimmer, and textac adhesive.

[tonyt79]

I use that same ink alot. I have not noticed any issues with curing. But had issues with opacity. Sometimes I even had to print,flash,print,flash,print on them

[Sbrem]

With plastisols, we never underlay metallics, they are always opaque enough. Many years ago we used water-based metallics, which I feel look better than most of the metallic plastisols I've seen, and they also covered very well. The metal flake is what makes it opaque...

Steve

[ScreenFoo]

Mesh count is the big one. 

Shimmer is pretty forgiving on that, IIRC.  (Wonderful that it's been this long...

[Frog]

Union specifies something like 65-85 as a mesh count. That's really coarse! If that doesn't cover with a p-f-p, nothing will.
I have never gone coarser than 110, but have only used One Stroke and IC shimmers.

I have underbased, and not underbased, and have still not decided which looked better (and justified the extra screen as I usually do pretty short runs)

[jvanick]

we use Wilflex Liquid silver here, and have had great results with pfp on a 156.. underbasing made the silver lose some of it's sparkle for some reason...

[3Deep]

I second Steve, we never underbase metallic inks, we just use a 110 or 86 mesh count and pfp using a 60 duro squeegee.

darryl

[Frog]

we use Wilflex Liquid silver here, and have had great results with pfp on a 156.. underbasing made the silver lose some of it's sparkle for some reason...

I believe that's a true metallic, have you noticed tarnishing down the line? (or do you overcoat it?)

[jvanick]

yup... it'll definitely tarnish after a bunch of washing

we've overcoated with Wilflex Soft Hand clear with good results.