Problem printing fleece _ Silicone inks

[Maxie]

We have a problem with a container of sweatshirts we got from China, we ordered material with a high cotton content and what we received has different material in the different sizes.  Some have a lot of cotton and some mostly synthetic, most probably polyester.
We printed black sweatshirts with a under base and red and yellow on top, all the sizes looked good except for one where the synthetic content is obviously much higher.   Colors looked totally washed out.
A lot of what we print is one color so I am thinking of using Silicone inks to solve this problem.
I have no experience with silicone.
Id like to know if silicone will look the same on the different materials?
They recommend curing silicone at a lower temperature than regular plastisol, what will happen if it's cured at a higher temperature, the same as plastisol?
Is it expensive to use?     You have to throw away left over ink after printing.
Which suppliers carry Union silicone?

[blue moon]

silicone will not work on blends. It really is for 100% poly only. It has no mat down properties. . .

pierre

[mk162]

I would go either 357 or ELT white from Onestroke.  It should print across the spectrum of fabrics well.  We love it for stuff like this.  I have customers that send us jobs with cotton, fleece and 100% poly shirts and we use 357 for them and it's great.

[jupmode]

The point I believe Pierre is making is that it's tough to get a smooth print with silicone on blended fabrics. That is true, but so long as you do, or your customer doesn't mind a rough print, silicone is fine on blends.

Silicone ink does adhere to blends. As long as it is cured, it won't wash out. It's great a great bleed blocker on on blended fabrics and patterned fabrics. It's also stretchy and works well for spandex materials.

[Frog]

If only a manageable few, they could also be hit with a heat press to smooth 'em out. Assuming that Maxie is not running a smoothing screen and roller.

[Maxie]

For our high end printing we use a roller and get a really nice smooth print.
Over the summer we print about 15000 shirts for youth groups (lots of orders of about 50) that are one color, no under base, double stroke on a 110 screen and the results are fine for that market.
A lot of the orders are for T shirts and hooded sweatshirts.
Most of the sweatshirts print well but often we get 100% polyester sweatshirts that don't hold the plastisol well and the print looks terrible.
I thought of using silicone as a solution, we cannot get all the range of whites you have in the USA.
I use mainly Rutland and Union, at the moment we have Market white and Silky white and a low bleed white.    We also use M3 so have the M3 whites.

[mk162]

I also just tried an ink from Xenon called XenWhite HO.  High opacity might be a bit of a stretch.  But it has awesome mat down.  Im not 100% sure how it would do on 100% poly, but It may work.  I would contact them and find out.

[Underbase37]

Is unions gery blocker not an option for you?

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[Maxie]

The Grey blocker could work but then I need to put down an under base, at the moment I double stroke on one screen.