Poly blends are killing me!

[brandon]

Tomorrow I should be able to pull out another water base on dark/black 50/50's or Triblends. We have both around the sample room somewhere.

[IntegrityShirts]

i cannot seem to grasp soft prints on poly blended garments, printed on our manual.

Right now i have 7 jobs lined up that are 3+ colors on dark poly garments, and i've tried using gray barrier base, poly white, even gray discharge as bases, and i still get bleeding or rough prints, that look dull. My dryer is set around 310degrees when i do these tees, normally i keep my dryer at 335degrees.

Any tips or suggestions?

What brand ink are you using?  Can you post a pic of the print so we can get an idea of the dye migration issue?  I've never had any issues with migration on tultex or AA.  Triblends from AA and Next Level discharge out to a medium gray.  Next Level 50/50's go much brighter to an almost white.  Tultex 50/50 don't go as bright as Next Level 50/50, but brighter than triblends in my experience.

[Logoman]

Ok, what is a smoothing screen?

[Frog]

Ok, what is a smoothing screen?

A smoothing screen is a blank, coated, exposed screen run just like any other screen, but on a just-flashed shirt has the effect of smoothing the print The same type of screen can be used as a "dust bunny cleaner" when a little stickum is applied to the underside.

Action Engineering and some of their test pilot fans have recently been talking here about their new Roller Squeegees , which can serve the same purpose as a smoothing screen on an auto.

[Get Shirts]

The Action roller squeegee is incredible.  We used a standard squeegee for years  on our smoothing screen before we got the roller, and it's a huge improvement.  The roller squeegee will still need a blank screen, it cannot be used directly on the garment.

[Frog]

The Action roller squeegee is incredible.  We used a standard squeegee for years  on our smoothing screen before we got the roller, and it's a huge improvement.  The roller squeegee will still need a blank screen, it cannot be used directly on the garment.

However, still, as far as I know, an auto-only goodie.

[brandon]

For a manual press I guess you could use a rolling pin!

[Chadwick]

Everyone seems to want to wear that stuff now, the heavy poly stuff, not the old blend stuff.
If it's a tight weave you're laughing, be aware of temps and such, obviously.
That loose weave substrate stuff is worse than a religious ( hole-y ) jersey.

Biggest problem though is bleed...no simple answers, gotta do your own homework with your equipment.
Take more charge in the art dept and design it for the darks, as opposed to trying to make it work on them.
Use brighter colors to start with...I've been preaching primaries forever, so yeah, once again.

Base shouldn't be heavier, that solves nothing..rethink your colors a bit, more opaque stuff helps.
Remember about the poly base..it just cures at a lower temp ( 320 max ), to avoid bleed.
If top colors require more temp to cure ( 350-ish ) you gotta get all diplomatic an such..and best wishes with red substrates.

More trial and error stuff, which you already know, but I'll repeat anyways.
I won't try and bs you with an 'answer'.
Been at this a long time. Still ain't got one, haha.

Cheers.

[Extreme Screen Prints]

There are many triblends and heather 50/50 blends that discharge fully. Tultex,Canvas American apparel and Gildan all have mutiple colors were the polyester is white and the cotton is the died part so the discharge works great. Whenever a customer asks for a blend style tee we try to push them to use one of those colors. Just thought I would put that out there if you didn't know this already.

[JBLUE]

Another thing to watch on the tri-blends is that they flash much faster. Watch when a fresh one goes under the flash. Time how long it takes for you to just see the fibers start to lift on the base white as it flashes. You can actually see the fibers grow and lift out of your base. back it down from there.

[whitewater]

yea ive been printing on the Next level tri blends lately..holy crap do you have to turn the heat way down..On my flash im down to 825ish when i get going...normally im at 915-940 degrees for a normal tee..