DO NOT DO THIS!

[Dottonedan]

I am not ever going to go into who did this. That part is not important as I expect they learned from fear of having to do a refund. Luckily that never happened. Nothing was ever said from the customer. They were giveaways so that might have played a small part in why it was not gone after with a vengeance but still, they paid a decent price for this. What happened could happen to anyone of us if we are not paying attention or get too rushed. This was for 40,000 units. Imagine how that can affect your business if you do not cure your next big order correctly.    This printer was indeed under the gun by the customer...but did have ample time to run them slow enough to cure them better than this.

Anyone know of any other reason why these get as bad as they do or is this the full result of poor curing?

It was noticeable by about 50% less than this at the first wash. They get worse with each wash.  It looks as as if some areas of the ink was cured more than other areas.

[mk162]

Man, that looks like a print that took skill too.  And then to mess it up on the cure is terrible.  I think it's simply an undercure.  Some parts might have been higher than others and that is why they cured better.

[tonypep]

You will never know without re-creating exactly what happened. White ink is getting much more expensive and the use of extra fillers is possible. Oven issues abound. If they were under the gun for a large run it's not uncommon for operators to speed the belt up to keep up for instance. Simple QC stretch test will usually catch this but not always. Doughnut probe that oven and check for weak spots.

[Shawn (EIP)]

That would be 99% of the printed apparel that Walmart sells or is produced in China. I once had a customer try to argue my "our prints will not fade or crack" statement on my website saying that cracking and washed away parts of designs will happen no matter what over time, as if it is to be expected.

[Dottonedan]

That would be 99% of the printed apparel that Walmart sells or is produced in China. I once had a customer try to argue my "our prints will not fade or crack" statement on my website saying that cracking and washed away parts of designs will happen no matter what over time, as if it is to be expected.

Last year I think, I showed/posted a picture of me wearing my shirt I bought a few months earlier at Wal-Mart of a fishing design. Over time, it faded out to almost gone. While walking through Wal-Mart one day, I notice the shirts and thought WOW these are much brighter than mine...wait...mine looked like this when I bought it. WOW. I didn't even notice until side by side. The distressed look is so far in style that I forgot how bright mine was when I first got it. The loss of vibrancy was so subtle over time that I never noticed. I assumed that it was just the type of design.  I need to find that pic and post it again.   Maybe we should have  a section showing examples of what NOT to do.

[Shawn (EIP)]

Whenever I store by shirts for my kids I'll bring it to the shop and run it through the dryer with the next order.

[mk162]

ink will crack over time, it just does.  the main ingredient in washing detergent is sodium and it will dry plastics out.  It's much later down the road, but eventually white ink will crack.

[tonypep]

That is true for plastisols. If they printed with discharge no problem.
Just sayin'

[Sbrem]

We had an issue with that lately, and discovered that the printer added thickener, and was way to liberal with it. It wasn't exactly ink anymore, so it fell off in the first wash. We tried to tell him that thickening is more of a quick fix, and shouldn't be a habit, proper ink laydown is alway better, and PFP if you must.

Steve

[tonypep]

Thickener is a type of filler sort of. Too much will cause the cure issue as you've seen. Don't know why the inks need to be thickened. Sounds like a bandaid for some other problem

[Screened Gear]

ink will crack over time, it just does.  the main ingredient in washing detergent is sodium and it will dry plastics out.  It's much later down the road, but eventually white ink will crack.

I am so glad you posted this. Very interesting to know it is not always us not curing enough.

[Frog]

ink will crack over time, it just does.  the main ingredient in washing detergent is sodium and it will dry plastics out.  It's much later down the road, but eventually white ink will crack.

I am so glad you posted this. Very interesting to know it is not always us not curing enough.

When he says over time, he means over time.

When you see a client sitting across from you in a shirt you printed. If it is faded and/or cracked, it better have been worn and laundered weekly if it's much less than a year old.

[Dottonedan]

ink will crack over time, it just does.  the main ingredient in washing detergent is sodium and it will dry plastics out.  It's much later down the road, but eventually white ink will crack.

I am so glad you posted this. Very interesting to know it is not always us not curing enough.

Ha! Frog, you beat me to it. I was going to say the same thing. (over a long period of time).  Some prints washed every other week can last 2-3 years and not crack.  each design will have different results and also as Tony pointed out, each ink type will have different results.

[Shawn (EIP)]

Some of my 50/50 white inks on hoodies have cracked within a year or so , but never have that issue with standard white inks. I have only noticed it on the ones I print for myself.

[jsheridan]

That would be 99% of the printed apparel that Walmart sells or is produced in China. I once had a customer try to argue my "our prints will not fade or crack" statement on my website saying that cracking and washed away parts of designs will happen no matter what over time, as if it is to be expected.

We wish this were the case but the stuff from china is better than you think, it won't crack  when cured right as it's rubber based!

Thanks to the EPA and other agencies who take the 'good stuff' from our inks and leave us with the crap we have today. I'm sorry but when you compare the ink we used 20 yrs ago to the stuff we have today.. it's friggen junk!!

Europe and Asia are smoking us on ink quality.