Squeegee leaving bad lines in print stroke

[austin.wanner.3]

One of our main customers is always complaining about the creases left on his shirts from the start and stopping point of print stroke due to the pressure of the squeegee.  We are using water based inks and discharge, workhorse freedom w/ v squeegee, 70/90/70 durametor squeegees, and all of his shirts are on comfort colors.  The problem is with the water based inks we are having to add so much pressure to allow for the ink to penetrate the fabrics that it seems to always put these creases or squeegee marks on the shirts, the more colors we print, the more noticeable the mark is.  I have tried to back pressure off from here to the point that it's not even fully clearing the ink from the screen, yet still sometimes leaves a crease.  I know a simple mist and run down the dryer will eliminate this problem, but on runs of 1000 shirts more or less we just don't have the time to go back and do this to all the shirts.  Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions, maybe screen tensions, off contact, squeegee durametor, pallet rubber, anything.  It's just getting frustrating having to sacrifice print quality for these small lines, and I have done everything I can think of to accommodate the customers wishes. 


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[Denis Kolar]

Make sure you round off the corners of the squeegee. That might help a bit

[austin.wanner.3]

It's not the length of the shirt,  but running horizontally across the shirt where the v-squeegee flips.  Basically laying the fibers of the shirt down where it flips at the end of the flood and en of the print.


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[sqslabs]

We've found the mist to be the only real option on ringspun fabric.  With a good spray bottle, an unloader should be able to keep up at close to full speed while misting each shirt.  It seems to have more to do with the characteristics of the ringspun fabric than it does pressure. 

We also had the same issues you do on our Javelin, especially when running more than once around the press.  The issue being that the squeegees are still pressing down on the shirt when not in use.  A chopper upgrade would eliminate that issue I believe, unless the squeegees still come down when not in use like the v-squeegee does.  I haven't seen a Javelin running a chopper system yet, but I think jvanick's old press had the upgrade so maybe he can chime in on that.

[ebscreen]

Try taping some foam on the bottom of the screen where the squeegee stops/starts, if possible.
Difficult with wb.

Then send your client to any mid-tier department store to look for pressure marks, because they all have them.

Then ask if they want to pay to have them steamed out.

[3Deep]

Couple of things here, do you have rubber top pallets, what mesh count are you using?
You could speed up your print stroke and double stroke and decrease your squeegee pressure or try a better mesh for ink to pass thru S mesh I hear is a winner.

[tonypep]

Try taping some foam on the bottom of the screen where the squeegee stops/starts, if possible.
Difficult with wb.

Then send your client to any mid-tier department store to look for pressure marks, because they all have them.

Then ask if they want to pay to have them steamed out.

Bingo. Try several fabrics/foams etc. The type of packing form that comes in rolls usually works best

[jvanick]

Even with the chopper upgrade, on a javelin,  the squeegee still comes down.

[austin.wanner.3]

Thanks sqslabs and ebscreen, basically verifying everything I have said and recommended to my boss.  3deep, no we do not have rubber on our pallets,  I believe it will help and have suggested this but I don't think it will absolutely eliminate the problem on rings pun and we would also have to completely reset an level all the heads out, which would mean down press time and a good bit of money lost.  As far as the screen mesh, it varies but usually no higher than 156 for wb.  I have tried speeding/ double stroking etc but with the discharge it tends to eat away at our glue and with a double stroke we sometime experience site shirt pulling up or the second stroke actually shifting the shirt just enough to make the image (especially higher detail images) distorted or not as crisp.  I do however believe better or tighter meshed screens will make an improvement, simply because less pressure would be needed to clear the ink.  Thanks


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[austin.wanner.3]

Tonypep, my boss was considering the thinnest neoprin foam he could buy, do you think this would work better than packing foam? Worse? Just as good?  My only concern is like you said taping on wb and the foam falling off in the middle of a run and me not noticing until the shirts came around and I had ruined 6 shirts, and leaving me back to square one.


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[austin.wanner.3]

And also.... Do you think the foam would possible affect off contact?


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[sqslabs]

no we do not have rubber on our pallets,  I believe it will help and have suggested this but I don't think it will absolutely eliminate the problem on rings pun

We have rubber on our Javelin pallets and you are correct that it does not eliminate the problem.

[ebscreen]

Don't need high tension for WB. If your tac is dying, you likely have too much penetration and can back off the pressure some.
If the images aren't detailed, you can use a softer squeegee and less pressure, both beneficial to your pressure marks.

[inkman996]

We were having the same issue with a certain style shirt a while back, after trying all the usual tricks with no success I remembered I had a huge roll of velcro on the shelf, Self sticking stuff. I used just the loop part and stuck it to the back of the screen down the sides and damn if it did not work awesome, not a single mark left from the squeegee.

[sqslabs]

We were having the same issue with a certain style shirt a while back, after trying all the usual tricks with no success I remembered I had a huge roll of velcro on the shelf, Self sticking stuff. I used just the loop part and stuck it to the back of the screen down the sides and damn if it did not work awesome, not a single mark left from the squeegee.

Definitely going to try this.. Thank you sir.