properly curing WB & Discharge

[Homer]

how can you tell when these prints are properly cured? is wash testing the only true method? We have a larger gas dryer now so I have to completely reevaluate our curing times for everything anyway. Now another issue, when we ran discharge through our small electric dryer, the image would appear after 1 trip down the tunnel,  but we wash tested and it washed right out so we sent them down two times, they washed fine. However - the image then appeared on the opposite side of the shirt, like it ghosted or was steamed into the shirt. It didn't go away when the shirt cooled down, maybe we got them too hot? I'm excited to get into more waterbase and discharge since we have a better dryer.

[jasonl]

I have heard if it still stinks after the wash, its not cured.  I havent had any problems and I use am M&R Fusion 10ft. heat.

[patfinn]

what are your dryer settings and specs? never heard of the image steamed into the other side of the shirt? can you show a pic?

[sportsshoppe]

when I tried some and slowed down the belt speed on dryer it scorched the shirts! Guess I was too slow Seems that 1 min in the dryer space would really be a scorched situation. Really going to work on this print style in August when we get out of All Stars and Baseball..... I look forward to following this thread

[Printficient]

how can you tell when these prints are properly cured? is wash testing the only true method? We have a larger gas dryer now so I have to completely reevaluate our curing times for everything anyway. Now another issue, when we ran discharge through our small electric dryer, the image would appear after 1 trip down the tunnel,  but we wash tested and it washed right out so we sent them down two times, they washed fine. However - the image then appeared on the opposite side of the shirt, like it ghosted or was steamed into the shirt. It didn't go away when the shirt cooled down, maybe we got them too hot? I'm excited to get into more waterbase and discharge since we have a better dryer.

Call Winston

[JBLUE]

I have heard if it still stinks after the wash, its not cured.  I havent had any problems and I use am M&R Fusion 10ft. heat.

This is a good rule to follow. If it is fully cured it has little to no oder at all. Wash test is always best but the smell test has worked for us so far. We have not had any complaints during our follow ups.

[tonypep]

I've printed discharge for decades using both modern and old style Precision gas dryers. While rotary yard goods printers commonly use a crock meter to test it's typically not necessary folks like us. As with plastisols and any other print method a variety of variables affect final cure. Meshcount, open area, squeegee etc, as well as many modifiers or additves such as retarders. Be sure the filtersare leaned for optimum air flow. Wash testing should be sufficient. The ink should pentrate approximately half way through the garment in most cases. Any more than that is generally considered overkill and will impede the cure

[Homer]

so it seems general practice should be:

Discharge -smell the shirt. then wash it if you are uncertain.

standard WB, wash test during preliminary trial and error, record your results, write down everything from atmospheric conditions to mesh count. Trial and error as every shop will be different. There really isn't a set temp to reach, it's more time than temp.

sound about right?

[JBLUE]

Those are good things to document. You still need to reach the manufactures suggested temp for curing. So record all of the above and make sure it gets up to temp. For large orders I usually will do a wash test. Its easier to run the shirts through again than it is to reprint the order and get a bad wrap for shirts washing out.

[ebscreen]

With a big old gas dryer, you're rarely going to be pushing the limits unless you're running 2 presses
or something. Err on the side of caution at the expense of a little more money for the utility company.
Find your safe setting and leave it.

The dryer here rarely changes settings, unless we're running poly or a huge plastisol order or something.
Otherwise plastisol and discharge can go through at the same time.

[tonypep]

Just remember it's not just time or temp but the combination of both and should include air flow properties. Referred to as retmption time in a controlled and measured environment. It's great to see all this interest in the subject!

[Doug S]

My 1st attempt at printing discharge was the other day.  I had an order for 36 black gildan 6.1 oz shirts.  I printed white discharge through a 156 mesh.  It was a solid print of the state of Arkansas.   I have a mini sprint with an 8ft chamber.  I set the belt speed to 6 and set the temp to 335.  The belt speed of 6 gave the shirts 90 seconds in the dryer.  They were discharged and we performed a wash test and everything turned out great.  I'm sure there may be a temp setting and maybe a little faster belt speed I could use, but I'm not comfortable enough printing discharge yet to play around with different settings yet.  Maybe some of you seasoned vets could clue me in on different settings.  I'm using the ryonet discharge which I guess is CCI

[Homer]

 TP, how do you measure getting the ink 50% of the way into a garment? I could see how more ink = more water to evaporate = longer cure time. these seem like extremely difficult variables to control when you put various mesh counts and squeegies into the equation.  I think for the first year of trying wb, we will have to do a ton of wash testing. I want to run a full season to see what changes come in winter vs spring. I can only imagine what that open garage door will do to our cure times. typically thinner stencils too, is that right?

[Homer]

another question on this stuff. I've been watching some vids and I see some guys toss the shirt on the dryer with the image almost falling on itself, wrinkled up more or less. Does it matter how you lay the shirt on a gas dryer vs electric? I know with our old electric, the sides of the prints would sometimes be under cured due to the small belt / heater size and we always had to have the shirt 100% flat...also, can you set a shirt on top of another and get proper air flow? I am assuming with the blowing air, you want the air/heat to penetrate through the entire image to get the full cure?

[mk162]

gas dryers don't really care about flat.