I'm getting a weird coloring from the ink...

[im_mcguire]

So I printed myself some samples to wear of a recent order, just to make sure curing, washability and everything is up to par for my customers.

What I noticed when I washed these shirts, the inside of the shirt where some ink bleed through, the ink had discolored on my samples.

I'm curious if anyone has seen this...?

Here are my specifics:

100% cotton Next Level shirt
Light olive color and Charcoal colored shirts
Rutland Street fighter LB white
Print flash Print

The charcoal shirt discolored a pink, and the light olive discolored a blue-ish color.

Attached is a photo of what I am seeing. And none of these have blead to the front of the shirt, it is just on the inside...

[Frog]

perhaps this is related to the the "ghosting" they warn you is possible if used on 100% cotton, though fortunately for you is limited to the inside of each shirt, and not transferring from shirt to shirt in a stack.
*Note to 100% Cotton users: 100% Cotton could have a ghost image appear if printed with low bleed
 inks. NPT SF Low Bleed White is a low bleed ink and should not be printed on 100% Cotton. NPT SF
 Low Bleed White is recommended for polyester/cotton blends.

http://www.rutlandinc.com/media/21863/350.pdf

[im_mcguire]

Ahhhhhh.
I never saw that. Thank you Frog. I'll talk with my ink rep, and order a cotton white for next time. Thanks again!

[Frog]

Actually, the ghosting phenomenon  is talked bout more than actually seen, but fore-warned is fore-armed.
The problem when it does occur is due to bleaching agents in some inks.
Whether SF is one of these, I can't say. Here though is a little educational presentation from International Coatings.
http://www.iccink.com/screenprint/howto_fabricdiscoloration.htm

[abchung]

May be Frog should have used this Frog story  by Rick Roth instead.

https://printwearmag.com/features/ghost-images-screen-printing-cause-and-prevention

[jvanick]

happens more often during humid conditions as well.

I've only seen ghosting twice.  both times were in our old garage-based shop and drying with a Workhorse 3011.

We've used the same inks in all conditions from dry as a bone to 70% RH, on the same garments with no issues with our gas dryer with an 8ft outfeed.

We are quite careful printing plastisol to not drive the inks through the garment, so that may be why we've never seen it IN the garment.

[Colin]

12 foot M&R sprint 2000 330 degrees 1 minute retention time:

I have seen ghosting on print runs during size changes and country of origin changes.  Which tells me the ghosting could just as easily be a dye issue.  We also run the SFLB2 for our low bleed ink.

Why is there sometimes ghosting issues?  I don't have any real knowledge of why.  I don't have enough knowledge on shirt dye's

Just an observation and my 2 cents

[cvreeland]

We just had this happen on a batch of 60% cotton 40% poly Next Level "warm grey" shirts, on a re-order we've run at least 5 times without problem.

The weird part is we over-printed the white underbase with a purple. I'm wondering if the fluorescent purple pigment (about half of the ink formula) is unstable? I'm stumped because we took the same mix down off the shelf & ran it just like last time -- gas dryer at 360º Lo-bleed white, flash, Purple PMS 513.

Has anyone else here ever seen ghosting with any color ink other than white? This has to be a shirt pigment batch problem.

[Underbase37]

From my understanding "ghosting" is caused from the bleaching agent in some white LB inks, and when stacking the shirts on top of one another, the shirt on top pulls in the gassing from the shirt bellow, leaving you with something that looks like a "stain", so to say on the back of the shirts. As far as I know this is exclusive to white inks.

Murphy