Author Topic: Printing on moisture wicking t's  (Read 4646 times)

Offline shirtz

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Printing on moisture wicking t's
« on: July 12, 2011, 04:51:01 PM »
Getting alot of orders and need to know how to print these.
I now know white on red turns pink!


Offline rmonks

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2011, 04:56:13 PM »
I would think depending on the color that poly ink would be the choice. most of that moisture wicking is more polyester that cotton. I too am getting ready to print some OD Green shirt white ink. I will use poly ink and watch the cure temp.

Offline whitewater

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2011, 05:00:24 PM »
I would think depending on the color that poly ink would be the choice. most of that moisture wicking is more polyester that cotton. I too am getting ready to print some OD Green shirt white ink. I will use poly ink and watch the cure temp.

thats all you got to do!

Offline sportsshoppe

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2011, 05:32:01 PM »
We print quite a few and usually do not apply any special treatment just good ink. I wear one everyday instead of T's and they have held up for years. Red will need a print flash print and we use a 110 mesh screen. I have found that Royal blue is the worst about bleeding but the ink holds good. Be careful on oven temp. may have to speed up belt to where you do not go over 320 to cure, you can draw them up if too hot. I almost forgot we use One Stoke white on a solid white print and Sonny's white for a base with a little nylobond in it on the ones with color laying on top. Good Luck

Offline Frog

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2011, 06:48:11 PM »
One Stoke white on a solid white print and Sonny's white for a base with a little nylobond in it on the ones with color laying on top. Good Luck

Why the Nylobond? Have you had an adhesion problem otherwise?
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Offline Printficient

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2011, 08:49:37 PM »
One Stoke white on a solid white print and Sonny's white for a base with a little nylobond in it on the ones with color laying on top. Good Luck

Why the Nylobond? Have you had an adhesion problem otherwise?
The Nylobond will help with cross linking at the lower dryer temp.  Scott Xenon white cures at 290-300 degrees.
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Offline Frog

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2011, 09:01:05 PM »
well, yes, that is an established "off label" use, but no mention was made of also adding nylobond to the top colors as well, so I'm not completely sure of his reason.
Do you typically see folks adding this to underbase only?
I know some disagree, but I have always felt that nylobond decreases suppleness a bit and would rather add something like this. http://www.iccink.com/pdfs/Low%20Cure%20Additive%20Flyer%20sm.pdf

At 290-300 cure, your ink seems to have this covered.
That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

Offline shirtz

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2011, 07:21:29 AM »
Thanks for the response.We ran the red shirts through the dryer without modifing the temp. That explains why nobody wanted to catch them,
they were smokin hot.

Offline pwalsh

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #8 on: July 13, 2011, 08:03:36 AM »
Getting alot of orders and need to know how to print these.
I now know white on red turns pink!

The Wilflex Epic Performance ink should be a good solution for these garments. 

Here are some of the product features from the Wilflex Tech Data Sheet.
   Low cure temperatures, fast-flashing
   Excellent elasticity, stretch
   Superb bleed resistance
   Wet-on-wet printability
   Smooth surface, matte finish
The Epic Performance Inks are recommended for these applications
   100% Polyester, Polyester Blends
   Performance Wear, Stretch Athletic Fabrics
   100% Nylon, Spandex
   100% Cotton, Cotton/Lycra blends
   Cotton/Poly blends (fleece & t-shirt fabrics)
   Polypropylene
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Email:  peter.walsh@mrprint.com
Office 847-410-3445 / Cell 913-579-6662

Offline shirtz

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #9 on: July 13, 2011, 01:23:34 PM »
Thanks Peter

Offline Printhouse

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2011, 01:43:10 PM »
I learned a lesson with these this past week.  I had ran 100 cotton tee's and was going to do the same logo on about 20 performance tee's.  I switched over to poly inks but was not watching my cure temps.  The first few ran through at about 425.  On those tee's I had tons of bleeding through the ink and the ink actually flaked off very badly after about 5 hours.  They looked horrible.  I am going to re do them and really watch my temps this time around.  I do tons of these tee's without issues but this was a golden yellow and white design printed on some very bright colors.... red, blue, green, etc.

Offline Gilligan

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #11 on: August 27, 2011, 01:18:23 PM »
Just got a small order of 100% poly  "Silver" shirts with black ink.

I have UnionInk Ultra Soft 8000 Black... will that be good enough?

Should I had some low cure additive to be safe?  The UnionInk is 300 degrees, but given I'm ghetto'ing it up with a flash unit and new at this should I try reducing it to be extra sure?  Or just get some cure test strips. :)

Offline Frog

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #12 on: August 27, 2011, 02:15:42 PM »
Dark ink on light poly presents no more problems than the poly itself. Don't pucker it with too much heat, but at normal temps, you'll be fine and of course, no dye migration issues.
That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

Offline Colin

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Re: Printing on moisture wicking t's
« Reply #13 on: August 27, 2011, 02:16:04 PM »
When printing black ink on 100% poly, you have no need to worry about bleed or adhesion problems.

Black ink will not color shift.
Been in the industry since 1996.  5+ years with QCM Inks.  Been a part of shops of all sizes and abilities both as a printer and as an Artist/separator.  I am now the Ink and Chemical Product Manager at Ryonet.