Curing / cracking / failing prints...

[merchmonster]

I have a new customer who put in an order of 500 shirts, hoodies and polos. When he came in he stated that his last shirts, which were printed by another printer, faded prematurely and showed me an example.

Now the same customer is stating that some of the prints we sold him are cracking or failing prematurely. I have yet to see the actual shirts but requested he bring them in.

I'm curious if any of you have had customers cause their prints to fail due to either the environment or care issues. We rarely have undercuring issues and it's a little weird to me that this guy has had prints fail from 2 different printers. This is a restaurant and they wear them daily as uniforms. One print location is a giant plastisol circle. Then 2 placements are just white text. Printed on an auto, so the deposit isn't super heavy as you might find on a manual.

Any insight is appreciated.

[Frog]

"fading", to me with plastisol, is a little vague.
I've seen cracking, I've seen patchy undercured areas start to wash out, and I've seen fibrillation that gives the illusion of fading.
What symptoms did the example from the previous printer display?

The problems he described from your prints sound a little different than "fading", but I do wonder if industrial laundering with harsher-than-usual detergents can be part of the problem.
You know, many shirt labels (on both white and colored) warn to wash decorated items in cold water, inside out.
Show him this. (If your particular shirts don't have these, print up a care sheet and give it to clients with the shirts.

[cleveprint]

we have an electrician that rents the section next to us in our building. we print all their sweats and tees. they have one employee that has brought stuff over to us where the imprints are washing off, cracking, fading. but no one else in the company ever has issues. its happened twice. i have no idea what they do to their shirts! their washing machine? hard water? detergent? i chalked it up to something they are doing as we print a few hundred shirts per year for them and never have issues with anyone else's garments.

[Maxie]

You’ll have to see the shirts.
If your curing is good might be fibrillation.
Ask where has his laundry done.     Might be a very heavy wash to get the grease out of his kitchen clothes that is effecting the print.

[screenxpress]

If it's the same image and the same brand of shirts, I'd be sure he's not bundling items from the last printer as "yours".

You're going to have to get some failing ones back to make sure what is what.

[BP]

I am with Maxie. What color of shirt? What color of ink? Put up a pic.

If your printing black ink on red shirt it is fib.

[Prince Art]

In gathering pieces of the puzzle, I'd try to find out whether these shirts are going to an industrial washing service, or whether employees are washing their own uniforms. If many different employees using different washing procedures are all having the same problem, then washing method probably isn't the issue.

I'd try to find out WHO is having the problem. If it's only the kitchen workers, or the fry cooks specifically, and not the servers, then you probably have a specific environmental cause.

I'd also try to ascertain how many wash cycles these are going through. Some restaurant workers may wash their uniform shirts multiple times a week, every week. Depending on the age of these shirts, it's quite possible these shirts are going through MANY times the number of washes the average t-shirt does. Heavy concentrations of plastisol do crack over time. In most uses, that may take years to occur. But where most shirts might get 50 washes in 1-5 years, restaurant uniforms might be washed 150 or more times in less than a year; and they're more likely to be using a more harsh wash procedure to remove grease. That would make it a general environmental or usage cause.

Obviously, if there's a shortcoming in your printing/curing process, you want to make it right. But if it's just normal wear & tear happening at an accelerated rated due to type of use, it may be time to have a "realistic expectations" talk with your customer.

[Scobey Peterman]

It might be they are leaving them to long in the cloths dryer

[Doug B]

  Or  I think it may very well be bleach- the kind that is supposed to be for colors. My
wife has proven this many times. I don't (can't) even wear decorated shirts anymore.

[merchmonster]

Thanks for all the ideas. I still haven’t seen them. Will post update when they hit my shop.