Can I print black ink on 95% Rayon (5% Spandex) Tees and have it adhere?

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Never heard of the name of these customer supplied tees: Color Bear Style ST500 and they are a heathered gray, baseball style shirt.

I have waterbased spot black Matsui that I'm tempted to smear on and wash test. It seems pretty tenacious. I might try slow and fairly cool with lots of airflow...say 300°, then The Official Kenmore Test. Or maybe 280-ish, twice so as not to shrink them. Dunno....

I've read a little bad stuff about plastisol on *Rayon, but I couldn't find that much honestly.

Anybody done these??



Thanks!
Stan

<* Edit: first time around, I put in Spandex. Duh.>

[Frog]

I don't know about the bad things you heard about plastisol and spandex as that's what stretch inks and stretch additive are all about.
I'd be much more concerned with the Rayon except that it doesn't sound like you will need to be concerned with flashing and shrink-related registration issues.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Sheesh Andy, I can't seem to follow through with a simple post without screwing it up.

It should have read Rayon instead of Spandex. "I've read a little bad stuff about plastisol on RAYON..."

I need a THOUGHT checker to go with my spell checker. I print Spandex all the time.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I'm reluctant to bump this thread because of the fact there has already been over 75 reads as of right now. I suppose nobody here knows. But I'm still hoping someone who DOES KNOW just didn't happen to see it.

A possible better option to direct printing might be transfers with adhesive. It is only a one color job. I have a OneStroke transfer kit with adhesive, but I'm just ridiculously inexperienced with in-house transfers. And these are ABSOLUTELY(!) going out tomorrow at the latest. It is for an event on Saturday, so there isn't time to order in transfers.

Would Matsui Spot Black stick? It seems to stick to about anything, including skin.   And floodbars. 

These are custy supplied goods, and I have no sacrificial pieces with which to test... a very bad idea.

Please advise...

[jvanick]

Nice thing about the Matsui spot black is that it'll be nice and soft and with the Fixer-N you can cure at super low temps. 

I've printed it on 100% poly, on bamboo and all kinds of triblends without issue.

You should be fine.

[Colin]

We would not accept unknown garments here without telling them we need to run one through our dryer first.

We will not accept a job without knowing what our print parameters would be.

With that said.  Test the black with the fixer N at lower temps and see if it shrinks.  If it does, alert the customer.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Thanks for the advise. My day filled up with stuff (what the heck did my day fill up with?!?!) I guess, so I'll strike one off tonight and apply The Kenmore Test a time or two. They just might have to be ONE short. Grrrrr.....

I am also prepared to do plastisol transfers if it come to that, thanks to the careful instruction of Robert at One Stroke this morning via phone! Thanks! 

It looks like I can send these out tomorrow one way or the other.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I wound up printing this job with Matsui Spot Black, with 3% Fixer N and 3% Printgen MG added.

I decided to sacrifice a garment, but I wasn't supposed to.  I'm sure glad I did, because my first test wash failed with the WB ink. I decided to try a plastisol transfer (One Stroke Kit) and it was perfect...but it puckered a little after dryer during the test wash, and I didnt care much for the"hand" on this particular garment.

So I went back to the Matsui Spot Black.

I figured perhaps my first attempt with WB might have been undercured, and it turned out I was right. I'm running a modded  infrared Harco with only 6 feet of heat...but with BIG AIR upgrades on my WB and WB Discharge Jobs. BUT.....I also start the curing process with a pretty hard flash in head 3, and another flash in 6 if I can. I was afraid to do steaming HOTT flashes with 95% Rayon. That's why my FIRST Matsui test print failed. I've never had a WB job fail a wash test before, but now I know what it looks like, and that is a good thing.

Kind of amazing, that in almost 4 years of curing WB in an infrared that I'd never seen WB fail a wash test before, but I didn't get an auto until a year ago. I just never pushed my dryer to the point of failure, I guess. (Cudos to Winston, for all the help tweaking my drier!)

Anyway, the first wash DOES degrade the Black's "pop" just a skoshe, but I went ahead and ran the Job with Matsui. The only degradation occurred after wash cycle #1 and after that I'd consider the print quite solid.

And on cotton, properly cured Matsui Spot Black with Fixer N and Printed MG produces THE BLACKEST, most durable prints we've ever done, period. Near ZERO fibrillation after multiple test washes. Wonderful prints, zero hand. Plastisol can't hold a candle to it for fibers and feel! But a thousand prints is about all I can get out of my WR 25 before I need to be thinking about screens. I'll have to work on that.