bleeding black

[ixpoz]

I am working on a 3 color job on 100% cotton.  White, yellow and black, in that order.  The first dozen or so went well, but then I am seeing that the black is starting to bleed around the top edges of the letters and into the sky, as well.  I am using 156 screens with plastisol inks, PFP with the white and PFP with the yellow as well and then printing the black.  I have posted a picture to show what is happening, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Atownsend]

Looks like the trap / stroke is a little big. 1Pt (vector) or 3Px @ 300DPI should do it. I would only choke the base 1pt rather than trapping the top colors. Usually for something like this I would print the black first. And I would have the top colors on 230/40's.

If you must P/F/P. Try Black / White / Flash / White / Yellow. You should not have to PFP the yellow. With a top white and a little art tweak, you could easily run this with one flash.

[ixpoz]

That’s an interesting color order, I hadn’t thought of that. So why would the first 10-15 print well and then start heading down hill?  Is there any hope of saving the current set-up?

[Colin]

As long as you have a infrared/radiant heat flash unit, that print order is a good one.

Also, can you tell us why you are trapping so high?  Does your press not hold tight registration?  Low tension screens?  anything else?

[ixpoz]

Basically it was a rookie mistake. When I initially did the art and burnt the screen, the registration marks didn’t expose properly and I couldn’t get the registration on to save my life. So when I redid the screens, I “tweaked” the art thinking I was doing myself a favor and over compensated with the bleed/stroke.

So going to back to what you were saying about the flash, I’m using a vastex f-1000 flash on a vastex v-1000 press, so it certainly has the ability, it’s mine that I’m questioning at the moment, Lol!

Anyways, are you suggesting that I increase my flash time and I may be able to save the job?

[Northland]

More often than not.... I'll print the Black first and flash it good.
... I never get any bleed after that.

[CBCB]

On our manual press I would have went: black yellow wow, flash, white yellow wow, flash, White. Into the oven.

Sneaking the black in early helps us a lot in the manual press too. I find the opaque inks for whites and yellows are hard to cover with a typically thinner black ink. Especially since we’d run it through a higher mesh in this case because of the coverage. Plus saves a spin because it can usually be printed wet on wet.

I realize this isn’t helpful to your situation but maybe it will be to a manual printer eyeballing this thread for tips.


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