printing across AA style track hoodie zippers

[Stinkhorn Press]

how can we print this better?

discharge ink on exposed zipper hoodies.

we have a channel on our platen for the zipper, but the exposed zipper style, no OC for discharge, leads to this (attached pic), clumpy ugly ink at the zipper backing.
we tried deleting the center of the print out the where it doesn't interfere, but that loses too much of the design.

we could try plastisol instead (it'll still clump a bit, but be equally opaque at the least. Not a great solution.

better ideas?

[Frog]

I'm no help, but what a poor shirt design to expect a nice print across the chest, ink clumping or not (I know, I'm just too old and don't understand fashion)

[Stinkhorn Press]

Yeah, custy really likes the exposed zipper look. doesn't want enclosed zipper, doesn't want crewneck sweatshirt. also doesn't want our not-so-good print on exposed zipper hood.

[Doug S]

I've never been approached by a customer wanting this luckily but the foam I hear mentioned here may solve it. 

[DannyGruninger]

Leave the design solid going over the zipper. Foam your pallets and cut a channel for the zipper. Get 1/4" wide pin stripping auto body painting tape and cut strips of tape slightly longer then the design. Load the hoodies on the pallet then place the pin stripe tape over the exposed zipper. Print the hoodies then remove the tape over the zipper for a perfectly printed zip hoodie. I'm in a plane headed back from nbm Portland but will update with some photos of needed.

[sqslabs]

Leave the design solid going over the zipper. Foam your pallets and cut a channel for the zipper. Get 1/4" wide pin stripping auto body painting tape and cut strips of tape slightly longer then the design. Load the hoodies on the pallet then place the pin stripe tape over the exposed zipper. Print the hoodies then remove the tape over the zipper for a perfectly printed zip hoodie. I'm in a plane headed back from nbm Portland but will update with some photos of needed.

We do the same thing over the zipper, except we use clear packing tape and cut it down the zipper seams with a razor.  Takes a while but gives good results.  The pin striping tape is a great idea, and a time saver over the way we've been doing it.  Will definitely be trying it on our next run, thanks for the tip.

[blue moon]

put foam under it and print right over the zipper. no slot cutting in the foam, no tape on top. Make sure you unzip the hoodie after the dryer so you break the ink clumps before they get hard.

pierre

[Wildcard]

What sort of foam is being referred to for this use? Assume it's something resistant to flash temps, thick enough to even out the zipper seam, and soft enough to compress under squeegee pressure?

[DannyGruninger]

put foam under it and print right over the zipper. no slot cutting in the foam, no tape on top. Make sure you unzip the hoodie after the dryer so you break the ink clumps before they get hard.

pierre

What are your print run sizes when you've done this? I've had some long run several thousand pcs runs of zip hoodies with direct zipper prints where the zipper does not get along with the mesh. Since we primarily use thin thread mesh the pin striping tape protects the mesh against the zipper as your printing over a sharp metal edge without doing some sort of protection. I really hate seeing crusty ink on a zipper, it always took us longer to clean the ink out of the zipper then placing tape on the exposed zip prior to printing. Do you get all the ink out and how are you doing it as running the zipper back and forth never quite seemed to fully clean it when we tried that.

[blue moon]

put foam under it and print right over the zipper. no slot cutting in the foam, no tape on top. Make sure you unzip the hoodie after the dryer so you break the ink clumps before they get hard.

pierre

What are your print run sizes when you've done this? I've had some long run several thousand pcs runs of zip hoodies with direct zipper prints where the zipper does not get along with the mesh. Since we primarily use thin thread mesh the pin striping tape protects the mesh against the zipper as your printing over a sharp metal edge without doing some sort of protection. I really hate seeing crusty ink on a zipper, it always took us longer to clean the ink out of the zipper then placing tape on the exposed zip prior to printing. Do you get all the ink out and how are you doing it as running the zipper back and forth never quite seemed to fully clean it when we tried that.

shorter runs, few dozen pieces for the most part. We also use 110 mesh for that so it's more durable. Since it's smaller runs, we normally do it on the manual, but have had runs of 100-400 on the auto. I just hate spending the time and foam on covering all the platens on the auto. With the manual we can cover two  or even one if it's a one color print.

Also, I like to see the ink on the zippers as it continues the design. We just make sure it opens smoothly after going through the dryer.

If there is any chance we'll bust the mesh, we make sure the zipper surcharge is high enough to cover the additional expenses. Normally we are at $0.50 but will bump it up to $1 in some cases.

We generally run into problems when the zipper pull is up on the platen and they print over it. Somewhere somehow, one or two always sneak in and bust the screen. We've started taping the cleanup cards now where we expect to see them and it has been helping.

pierre