ugh..1600 5 color prints on RED 100% poly

[alan802]

Every year we do a large run of red 50/50 with the design being red, white and blue, fairly large open area for the white in the design.  The first year we printed them, they looked terrible, pinkish in the white area, but the next year I used Wilflex's underbase grey.  This stuff was very difficult to print with but we made it through the run, extreme squeegee pressure and I believe the dreaded double stroke was used but there was absolutely no bleeding.  On the third year I cut the underbase grey with some qcm 158, about a 50/50 mixture and it increased the printability by 100%, and the bleed resistance was also still 100%.  Not to mention less than a second of flash time because the underbase grey will flash gel if you freaking breath on it right.  I've printed white designs on 100% poly red performance shirts using the underbase grey with no bleeding.  I'm sure most of the other suggestions probably work fine, but I don't ever have one thought or worry about bleeding anymore.

On that note, every time I mix up a new batch of UB grey, I keep going higher on the white ratio number to where the last batch was 70% white.  The key to mixing them is making sure the white has a good degree of bleed resistance and all will be good in the hood.

Has anyone else tried this or have any info they could add to the grey underbase ink?

[squeegee]

Definitely agree about UB grey as a great bleed blocker, however grey is not always suitable color for an UB, take for example a bright pure yellow, a pure orange, or fluorescents, grey shifts those colors too much.

 I've never tried mixing white into UB grey, but it sounds like it may be worth a shot, depending on how pure the overprint color needs to be.

[Chadwick]

Red polyester is buttf*cking evil.

And that's about all I gotta say about that.
 

[ZooCity]

I mix perf white w. the ub grey to get lighter underbases.

Agree w. squeeg on over cooking the low cure ink at the bottom when using higher cure temp inks on top. It's risky.

[Nation03]

We basically only do sports/poly type shirts where I work. We started using one stroke versamax... at first I hated it because it had the body of soup.. I called and wrote them a letter and now the stuff is super creamy. Bleed resistance is pretty good, but we take a few precautions.

1. With red poly we run the garments through the dryer first and then let them cool for a while. This is my boss's idea, I'm not sure if it is the best idea or if it really helps. Poly is synthetic, and when it gets heated the dyes get excited and rise to the top... so I figured the less you suject them to heat, the better? But he thinks otherwise so I just go along with it.

2. On 100% poly I usually lay a 3rd layer of white down. I hate doing it because it is such a thick print, but the customers don't complain so I guess it's okay.

3. Don't stack the shirts on top of each other when they come out of the dryer. Put them on a table with a fan blowing on them. The faster the fabric cools down, the faster you stop the dye from rising.

I never really had problems on the 50/50 reds with the versamax. But 100% poly is always tough.

[tonypep]

I never really understood why there seems to be so much trouble with Poly. I never do the dryer excersize just use a good bleed resist and start printing. Wilflex Polywhite and Rutland are what I've used in recent years.

[mk162]

I think because they heat so fast there is much less window for perfection.  I actually love 1 color prints on poly, especially white ink.  I actually did some forest green poly with a 2 color back..white and lime.  It was beautiful.  And the coverage was silky smooth.  Thick on the back of a wicking tee, but smooth as a baby's bottom.

[inkman996]

I am with Brad I am starting to love printing on poly as it becomes more and more common. It gives the best smooth prints with great opacity with the right lo-bleeds it is better than printing cotton.

[tonypep]

On St Thomas all the local work I did for hotels, restaurants, landscaping, and most other businesses was almost always on poly. They claim it breathes better.

[Clark]

I never really understood why there seems to be so much trouble with Poly. I never do the dryer excersize just use a good bleed resist and start printing. Wilflex Polywhite and Rutland are what I've used in recent years.

Mostly has to do with I am a small shop, and this is roughly $8K worth of garments that will be rejected by the customer if there is any bleeding.

[squeegee]

Small shop or not, $8K is a lot of money at risk.

[ZooCity]

You know, if this is contract work, drop shipped garments, you should maybe have a standard disclaimer/write-off for poly garments.  Just lay out your parameters that you guarantee your shop will hold (low-bleed ink, cure temps, etc.) and have them sign it.  You could also have a test that you run to determine the level of bleeding to be expected.  If they happened to ship you a bunch of poly garments chock full of agitated red dye that's not your problem really. 

Printing retail it's a different story, but for contract, that's probably how I'd roll.  Just spec out what your going to do and let them be aware of the risks of printing on the substrate they chose.  None of us, no matter how good we are at printing, can guarantee red poly won't bleed even though we'd like to pretend we can. 

[Clark]

It's retail.  I got some garments to test on this morning, and I'm going to let them sit here for a couple days.  I think as long as the Atkins probe isn't lying, we should be okay.