Anyone know what this is?

[ZooCity]

Stumped here. 

These spots are occurring intermittently on one color of the print run.

Straight DC ink going onto black ringspun.   

Happens on different shirt brands/lots and has happened with different ink colors and variations of our ink formulae.

Ink is "normal" DC, about 16% PC load at 6% activator printing through a 150T.  Image area for this color is also pretty much "normal" not super large or small.

Increased heat in the dryer seems to diminish it, currently running the job at 350˚ through 16' of sprint HO.

Oh the joy of dc printing!

[mimosatexas]

I have two guesses:

1. little bits of lint on the platen are causing differences in pressure that are cause differences in penetration etc
2. something was sprayed on the shirt or the fabric that is causing a variation in the reaction

[ZooCity]

I have two guesses:

1. little bits of lint on the platen are causing differences in pressure that are cause differences in penetration etc
2. something was sprayed on the shirt or the fabric that is causing a variation in the reaction

It's not #1 for sure and #2 would only be possible if shirts across different brands and points of origin all got a random spritz of something that varied the DC reaction.   Maybe aberrations in the dye process?  I'm currently leaning away from it being the shirt as it seems unlikely that this could repeat across so many styles. 

[brandon]

Let me guess, when it happens does it tend to be your yellows? I've noticed this from time to time on Gildan, NL, Bella Canvas, ITC, and others. Increased dryer time and lower mesh count has helped it for us. But it's not all the time. So yeah, knowing that dye houses use left over color to help make black (I don't blame them, there is a huge demand for black tees so why waste dye) it could also be the dye not being completely mixed? I'm curious to this as well. Thanks for posting Chris.

[Colin]

What does the back of that print/garment look like?

If you cut straight through that area with scissors, would it be any thicker there?  Any way to look at a cross section under a loop/magnifier?

Could it be..... oil drops or something similar?

I have seen "drops" show up when discharging... super annoying.

[DannyGruninger]

Oil drips or splashes of dye on fabric prior to cut n sew is my guess. We see this time to time and only common with more translucent inks which leads me to think it’s spots of concentrated dye. Some discharge colors can cover these spots but no go on a color like yellow. I have a really hard time thinking it’s the ink.

[Mystery]

I've seen this before. Has that been under the flash cure? I could never figure it out. My hunch was moisture in the tee.

[ZooCity]

Yes it does tend to happen on the clean/bright colors like yellows but those colors are often an "ultra" mix utilizing minimal pigment.  This one here has a 16% pc load with a good grip of that being white, it should be hiding as well as other colors in the run.

Upping the dryer heat to 350˚ took the issue away, at least for this run.   Chamber time is about 1.5min, these printed on 150/48.

The inside of the fabric looks normal to me, perfect very even penetration of the ink actually.  I can't feel any change in thickness or see any difference under a loupe.  It's hard to discern the duller spotted areas that close, they just look like slightly less discharged blobs.  I do have a usb microscope laying around here but I don't think I could glean much from a cross section with the setup I have.

This color was flashed before two more top colors were laid down.   My guys run the smart flashes on every job mostly to keep the platens warmed.

So you all think that the concentrated dye and/or oil spray on the fabric is endemic across NL  3600, BC 3001, (old) AA 2001?  We've seen this on all those garments.  I agree that I can't see how it would be the ink at fault but am hesitant to think that all those brands have an almost identical issue like this.

Thanks!

[Colin]

I look mostly at the pattern of the "spots" that are having issues.  It looks to me like what we see on every other garment that has "drips" of a foreign material.

I have see this before with discharge across all garments we have used, just like we see oil spots across all garments.

And you will almost never know until the shirt hits the dryer....

When we have had pigment issues, its almost always little streaks. 

[ebscreen]

Assuming you were leaving the screen flooded, was there a chance that the ink might have started forming "drips" in the open area?
It looks like heavier "deposit" and upping time/temp fixing it would seem to confirm.

We've seen it before. We've seen lint buildup cause similar. We've seen oil spots or whatever cause similar. Such a fun game.

[ZooCity]

I had a brief thought about bubbles in the flooded ink...drips sound more likely.  Fun indeed.  These were big 'ol open area prints too and it seems like that's when drips happen with wb/dc ink.  I'm not sure we've ever had a dripping issue with textile inks but I always see it with flatstock.