matting down ring spun fibers

[Shawn (EIP)]

Anyone have any tips on how matt down the fibers without making the print bullet proof? Never really had an issue before but yesterday I printed a rush job and to be honest it looked pretty bad, almost  embarassing handing them over. It was mix of Hanes Nanos and Anvil Fitted , the Nanos printed nicely but the Anvil's ,no so much.

[Frog]

Waterbased inks, by penetrating, at least allow the fibers that pop up to have the same color as the print.
For tips on plastisol, I seem to recall that Colin once posted something here.

[blue moon]

Anyone have any tips on how matt down the fibers without making the print bullet proof? Never really had an issue before but yesterday I printed a rush job and to be honest it looked pretty bad, almost  embarassing handing them over. It was mix of Hanes Nanos and Anvil Fitted , the Nanos printed nicely but the Anvil's ,no so much.

for the Hellfire print that won an award few years back, we used three white screens. Two white underbases through 330S (thin mesh) one after another without flashing. Even then, it was not as white as you'd think due to the fibers not matting, but it was better than OK.

pierre

[Colin]

Honestly, It really depends on the garment.

I have seen some shirts soooo fuzzy that there is no way to matte down the fibers.  Even with a print/flash/print/flash/print through an 86 mesh.... they were that bad.

Typically though: good Tight screens, a sharp 60/90/60 or 70 duro squeegee, a firmer bodied ink, just enough off contact, etc... We all know the drill by now, will take care of it.

You may need to heat press the garments either before or after printing to take care of all the damn fibers...

Good Luck!

[Frog]

The only times that this was an actual serious issue for me, the fibrilation didn't appear until the first laundering.

[mk162]

I have often thought if there was a pressing station on a press after the first white, that would be genius.  It would press and gel the ink at the same time, but it also might make the print too slick for colors to stick well, so white might be the only thing to print on top off the pressed ink.

It would work awesome for PFP designs.

[Colin]

I have often thought if there was a pressing station on a press after the first white, that would be genius.  It would press and gel the ink at the same time, but it also might make the print too slick for colors to stick well, so white might be the only thing to print on top off the pressed ink.

It would work awesome for PFP designs.

You can kinda do that if you have an auto press now.

You just need a blank screen in the head after the flash.  Put in a 90 duro squeegee, some clear ink, and give a med speed high pressure pass on the freshly flashed ink to both flatten any shirt fibers and to make the ink surface very very smooth.  This is especially nice when doing sim-process/halftone work as it makes your blends even smoother.

No need to worry about "inter-coat adhesion" or the inks bonding together properly.  Only time you need to worry about that is if you actually cure the top layer of ink....

[ZooCity]

Colin's method works really well in certain scenarios. I've done it on the manual even.  You station the flash right after the print station, flash, pull it back and hit it while hot with that "blank"screen.  It will create a little gain in my experience.

[tonypep]

I have often thought if there was a pressing station on a press after the first white, that would be genius.  It would press and gel the ink at the same time, but it also might make the print too slick for colors to stick well, so white might be the only thing to print on top off the pressed ink.

It would work awesome for PFP designs.

Its been done. The transfer heads on autos were designed for foil however. One could use clear foil for extra pop and shine, or a sheet of silicone will give it more of a matte finish. It's a  really slow process however.
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