How do you keep your sleeves to stay put???

[im_mcguire]

So I have been printing a lot of sleeves lately, and my current press guys are misprinting shirts like crazy.

I tell them they need more adhesive, and they tell me they spray it...  I use a common mist adhesive, but Im wondering if there is anything else I could be doing...?

Ive tried Tekmar water based adhesive, but that just doesnt cut it for us.

Today we printed a 3" area about 1/2" above the hem p/f/p and had 5 shirts in a row misprint.

Not thrilled at all, especially counting that this was a 4/4 job and the 1 color sleeve was the last part...

[whitewater]

print sleeves first then..

we us the tekmar adhesive. we load throught the neck and tape the screen pretty good on shirt side and it works for us..

are you letting the shirt hang down and the weight is pulling it off?

[Frog]

sleeves, or whole shirts, it's waterbased stickum for me.
Now, lotsa questions, I bet a lot of folks are asking.
So, what doesn't work with the Tekmar? Almost everyone is moving away from the sprays except for fleece (and that's usually the webby stuff)
Are these regular cotton or 50/50 shirts or some exotoc preformance fabric?
What's moving with the sleeves that doesn't move with the shirt body?
Are these long sleeves on a long board, or just short sleeves on their own little board?
Are you putting them on through the collar?
btw, are they moving of shrinking a bit? Did you know that there is a more heat resistant mist spray available if it's the heat that's screwing with you.
Oh, and of course, heat only helps the waterbased stickums.

And to help prevent the weight of the shirt from pulling the sleeve off, I use a loop made of a cut off sleeve on the print arm to tuck the shirt in. Keeps long stuff from hitting the floor as well.

[3Deep]

Hmmm, never had a problem keeping sleeves in place, got to be how you all are loading the them, we print sleeves on our manual here and to help keep them in place I don't let the shirt hang I lay the bulk of the shirt behind the pallet and that helps keep it from dragging on the floor.

[jsheridan]

pull the shirts onto the board through the neck for multi color stuff to reduce the 'spin weight' during index. this swinging will pull away from just about any tack.

the single and easy stuff, load by the sleeve cuff.

[im_mcguire]

sleeves, or whole shirts, it's waterbased stickum for me.
Now, lotsa questions, I bet a lot of folks are asking.
So, what doesn't work with the Tekmar? Almost everyone is moving away from the sprays except for fleece (and that's usually the webby stuff)

For us The tekmar doesnt keep the shirt put after the 1st revolution.  Now a counter question... Would it affect the longevity of stick if my guys started with the spray, then tried the Tekmar?


Are these regular cotton or 50/50 shirts or some exotoc preformance fabric?

100% cotton Port PC54

Are these long sleeves on a long board, or just short sleeves on their own little board?

Regular 4"x22" wide platens from Action.


Are you putting them on through the collar?

No.  Hanging them off and letting the shirt hang off.

btw, are they moving of shrinking a bit? Did you know that there is a more heat resistant mist spray available if it's the heat that's screwing with you.

Yes, and aparently this is that more heat resistant spray apparently.


And to help prevent the weight of the shirt from pulling the sleeve off, I use a loop made of a cut off sleeve on the print arm to tuck the shirt in. Keeps long stuff from hitting the floor as well.

After reading this, I think I need to give my pressmen these answers.  I think loading through the neck will be better. 

Thanks!!!

[Frog]

I don't see any reason that the waterbased adhesive would benefit from going over a layer of the spray. I've done the opposite though when changing over to fleece.
Now, for most of us, the waterbased stuff is good for anywhere from 50 to a few hundred shirts and even then gets rejuvenated with a danp rag or brush removing the lint. I wonder if you guys are using enough. As mentioned though, if you are letting the shirt hang below, it is adding to the tendency to move (though some of these waterbased goos are pretty damn aggressive!

[Colin]

Tekmar water base tack

Load sleeve first - not through the neck

12 color Sportsman - so not the greatest index whipping speed (cardboard placed on floor to keep shirts clean)

we never have issues with glue adhesion if:

1) Glue is applied properly - not to thin
2) There is some heat on the boards - the glue likes to have some heat to promote adhesion
3) The shirt does not have a "coating" or "Enzyme Wash" which can make some shirts not want to stick at all and others loose tack..... I hate some brands....
4) If shirts are coated we use a mist spray glue.  Re-apply every 5-10 shirts depending.

With the waterbase glue we will typically go up to 700 pcs on 16 boards (43 pcs per board) before Wanting/Needing to scrub the boards clean.

How hot are your platens getting during the run?

[cbjamel]

If your boards get to hot the shirt will squirm around. I you spray glue for sweatshirts the mist not the web.

Shane

[mimosatexas]

like others have said, the wb adhesive should be working fine unless something is weird.  I do lots of sleeves (manually) and just load the sleeve, not through the neck.  Never had any issues with movement.  On certain brands (comfort colors) I will use spray web tac since those things fuzz up like crazy.

[Lizard]

I assume you are printing on an auto. If you have tack below the hem area the screen will stick to the pallet (inconsistently) which will cause registration problems like crazy. On fresh pallets use a piece of cardboard to keep tack above the hem area. On pallets that already have tack on them wrap some tape from the hem line out and keep the tack above it. That should fix you up.

[Gilligan]

Hind sight being 20/20... I tell my guys to do the easy prints first, easier to setup if you screw something up on the hard print.  If you still had the 4/4 part to do then screwing up a few sleeves would just be a minor pain in the arse.  Now it really sucks.

This is the opposite of what I taught them when manually printing because we were more likely to screw up on the hard print and didn't need to waste time.

[Maxie]

I also use Tekmar and have no problem, we put the shirt on sleeve first, maybe you should pull it further onto the pallet.
I had my pallets custom made by Action and they are 4" shorter than standard pallets so we can print the sleeve without pulling it down to the printing area.
I don't know why all sleeve pallets aren't made shorter.

[alan802]

You need to get away from that mist adhesive.  I've heard it many times where shops say they can't use it because of whatever reason, but if it takes a few days for the guys to get used to it then so be it, it's worth it times 10.  And if it's one or two of your crew that is resisting the switch then you need to put your foot down.  If it's YOU that is resisting you need to take it upon yourself to learn how to use it properly and then never look back.  Mist versus WB adhesive is one of those things where the benefits of WB are so far above the mist that for me it seems insane not to use the WB.  My main printer resisted for months but I finally told him he was going to use the WB or he wasn't going to be operating the press. 

I know applying the WB stuff takes longer up front but when used properly we've gone damn near all day (obviously smaller quantities) without having to reapply.  There are dozens of reasons to use the WB adhesive and maybe 2 reasons to use the mist.  Bite the bullet and make the change, trust the legions of guys who've made the switch.

[inkman996]

I have noticed a couple things that cause it when my guy sets up prints for sleeves. The usual culprit is he does not position the squeegee location correctly and ends up printing over the hem at the shoulder which can drag on the shirt a little. Another he does sometimes is not spread out the adhesive enough, he puts it just where the image is and not from edge of platen to the other edge.  This seems to bring in the chance for shrinkage more.

When we load sleeves we load through the neck and we flip the remainder of the sort over the p[laten arm just behind the platen and before the reg gate. This keeps the shirt from hanging down on the ground and lessens the drag weight.