Need tips for maintaining registration on hoodies

[shellyky]

Having problems with 10oz thick fleece hoodies. F170 and f280.

Their thickness seems to make the registration off from screen to screen when I just ran 100 tees perfect. Also no matter the pressure I still can't seem to get a smooth print with 100% clearing of the ink. Also having problems with the hoodie lifting and sticking to the screen no matter how much tack I use.

One more thing. Printing left chest on a zipup. Any help on that.

[bimmridder]

Have you adjusted your off contact?

[ScreenFoo]

I LOVE those hoodies.

Just what I was thinking--you've dropped central off contact, you have a little more OC than on the T's, right?  More OC means more misregistration.  (got those new rollers yet?    )

Pulling up no matter how tacked they are is usually a squeegee angle/speed/pressure/sharpness issue here.  (or someone forgot to stir the ink)  Have you tried standing it up and adding a little pressure?  Have a real sharp/new squeegee you can swap and try? 

Pocket prints with zippers we tape an extra square of platen rubber on, and shim the screens with the same material.

[whitewater]

i would try more standup on squgee and more pressure too..

[cbjamel]

I print those all the time use Sprayaways 383 heavy spray and an extra hit or 2 to get clean out should help no flash in between.
Shane

[Admiral]

Really good mesh is even more important with hoodies.

We lower the OC 1/16", we tack every couple hoodies per platen, and when it's placed we usually push the fleece down and in the direction of the squeegee travel.

[Homer]

just to pile on here -we always use a smoothing screen after the flash. make the prints really smooth and top colors print really sharp too. smash them fibers down.

[shellyky]

Hmm. Ok I tried a lot of these suggestions already. I'll try sharper angle on the squeegee thought and spray tack instead of WB. MAN I HATE HOODIES. Of course they're always black with 2 whites and 4 colors. Ughhhh

Thanks

[Gabe]

Or you can hire me 
don`t work too hard

[ebscreen]

Love printing those because they discharge.....

DC underbase is the way to go for that many colors on top.


With plastisol, we go with a harder squeegee, usually 80 duro, and it needs to be sharp.

For printing zipper fleece we use the sleeve pallets if only printing on one side of the zipper.

[blue moon]

don't forget that some hoodies shrink when flashed. Try running them through the dryer before printing or having a flash on the first station to heat them up before the first print.

pierre

[sweetts]

I print on a manual press I throw a flat wood ruler under the screen before clamping it in to raise the off contact that way your not changing the press. I use Lots of tack and I also run them through the dryer first.


RT Screen Designs
www.rtscreendesigns.com

[brandon]

Yeah, flashing is a major issue here. But that is something where discharge wet on wet can can help if you cannot adjust your flash times

[mooseman]

you cant fight these things you have to out smart them
here are some things we do ESPECIALLY on large prints where the top registers and the bottom doesn't.

NO1 tons of tack, we use water based stuff and add extra so you could literally trap a mouse (sticky traps)
NO2  load your hoodie but do not press it down YET, run it under the flash for a pre heat / pre shrink
NO3  stick that bugger down using your hands to slide /push  the hoodie IN THE SQUEEGEE DIRECTION only do not go up and down
we have even gone as far as taking a coated screen tape it off hit it with silicone spray and use a squeegee / print strokes to press the hoodie down...really sock it to it.
NO4 flash the finished print to semi cure the ink because it is going to be a bugger to get these babies off. ther after flash will set the ink and heat the tack which will help break the bond.
NO5 clean the platen and start all over again.
This is a PITA and many will say I am crazy and they are right BUT it WORKS especially if like I said you have a large design and you are losing the lower registration.
best of luck

mooseman

[alan802]

All good suggestions and I don't have much to add but I will chime in with this:  We used to have issues with hoodies and now that we've changed a few things they are no longer much concern.  By no means are they as easy as t-shirts but we no longer dread them.  Use your highest tensioned screens, raise the OC, SHARP squeegee blade, and unfortunately a little bump in print pressure is usually needed for us.  It's been said that they should require less pressure but we haven't been able to find those settings that will allow less pressure.  With fleece, the mesh likes to hang around in the ink deposit and it doesn't pull itself up like when printing tees.  So whatever you can do to help get the mesh up and out of the ink deposit will make a big difference (higher tension , proper off contact, etc.).  We have always used the web spray adhesive and spray the pallet before every garment.  It's a double edge sword with the adhesive, you have to put down a generous amount, but the more adhesive you add the more shirt fibers stick to the pallet therefore needing to apply more adhesive.  I've tried explaining that to my printer who puts entirely too much water based adhesive on the pallets, and he doesn't need that much and the less he puts on the pallets, the longer it will last.  He can't quite grasp that concept but all the lint the shirts leave behind is the main reason the pallets become less sticky.  We have never flashed them or ran them through the dryer before printing but it certainly wouldn't hurt to do so if you have the time.