How and Can this be printed

[rmonks]

I am starting to get request from military units stationed in Afghanistan, probably because our State Army National Guard Units are taking their turn to serve there.
Anyway I was sent the attachment which is a power point file, and they want a quote on cost to print this on a moisture management t-shirt (Poly) or Poly blend.
First thought is, way out of my league of printing, even if it can be done. I may need to farm this out. I don't know how many shirts or sizes yet, I will find out more. But if someone can tell me how to print it I would love to take it on.

[Homer]

send it to Dan, tell him how many heads you have to print with and I'm sure he can sep it for you. . assuming you can get real artwork. . .sending power point to a printer is like a chef using a light bulb to cook a steak. . .unreal. . .

[Dottonedan]

I'm looking at it now. As most know, with the right separator, you can be able to print this. With the right guidance, you can print this very well. That guidance can come from most here as well as myself.

The seps can come from me or from someone like a Myseps guy. You need someone knowledgeable enough to walk you thu printing high end art that knows how to handle it in a decent manor and you need to be able/willing to change a few things like ink formulations and mesh and maintaining smaller dots and print technique.  It's not as hard as it sounds.

At a minimum, you need a 6 color press and a 230 mesh and 5 - 305 mesh.

1 Base white
2 Yellow
3 Red
4 Blue
5 Black
6 Top white

Printing a job like this in 6 colors (on dark) really requires more out of your printer person as well as good seps and screens. They (you0 need to understand that we can only achieve a good print if you let go of how you normally print flat color basic spot logo's and follow the instructions given.

Of those few who have not had a good experiences trying sim process is usually a result of taking short cuts or using what they have available instead of following the guidance provided.

You have a basic recipe for printing sim process. If you build it as described, "They will come".

You will also need to make sure they can provide you with an original high rex art file that this pdf was created from. Currently, this is not usable art to get good results from. It's low rez for a layout. So ask for a layered photoshop file. If all they ahve is flat files, then ok, but make sire it's near actual print size and at 300ppi (pixels per inch ) aka resolution.

[Dottonedan]

HA!  Thanks Homer 

[blue moon]

printing this on 50/50 is a no brainer. You'd need to lay down a little more ink than on cotton, but it can be done without much headache. I would say that if you increase your dots by about 15-20% it will print like a regular T-shirt.

now, wicking will be a different story. Here's my thinking based on the spot color, multi color prints I have done on wicking material. Those were not simulated process, so some things will change, but . . .

The weave is very dense and flat so anything you print on it will show. The biggest issue I see here is achieving the fade. Here's why: Regular sim process inks are partially translucent and they have to go on an underbase to be visible. Printing those same inks without the underbase is what helps provide a nice fade out that you have around the border. On wicking materials ink does not fade out as much and it might almost be possible to print it without an underbase. The coverage is that good! So on wicking material the fade out would not work as well and would produce a rather harsh/abrupt stop. This would have to be compensated for in the seps. Dan would have to know the size of the smallest dot you can hold and customize the seps for your particular press output. This is just my thinking (and I might be overthinking it here, sorry).

Also make sure you stay away from wicking material that has a brushed finish as it makes it very difficult to get a good smooth underbase. As long as the finish looks smooth, you should be OK (with a bit of testing).

pierre

[Dottonedan]

Ya know,  one thing I forgot to mention now that we are into talking about printing on Poly.

You should have your customers ask the superiors about using Polly (anything). Most or all military will not permit them to wear these (during work hours) and especially during deployment even under issued fatigues or whatever. Reason being, if ever in a fire (for any unforseen reason), that material goes up in flames like nothing flat (but then sticks to the body as it's melted plastic), therefore causing even more injury. Thus, no polyester allowed. This is even if (they buy them themselves).

I had questions about that and ScreensExpress (Wayne) pointed that out. So I had them (my customers) check into it and he was right. I was working with the Marines tho. I would assume that it's the same for all but you never know. I'd ask and considering all that, I'd also talk them out of Poly.

[Evo]

Ya know,  one thing I forgot to mention now that we are into talking about printing on Poly.

You should have your customers ask the superiors about using Polly (anything). Most or all military will not permit them to wear these (during work hours) and especially during deployment even under issued fatigues or whatever. Reason being, if ever in a fire (for any unforseen reason), that material goes up in flames like nothing flat (but then sticks to the body as it's melted plastic), therefore causing even more injury. Thus, no polyester allowed. This is even if (they buy them themselves).

I had questions about that and ScreensExpress (Wayne) pointed that out. So I had them (my customers) check into it and he was right. I was working with the Marines tho. I would assume that it's the same for all but you never know. I'd ask and considering all that, I'd also talk them out of Poly.

Same reason you don't do stick welding with a poly blend shirt on. Don't ask how I know this.

 

[sportsshoppe]

Same reason you don't do stick welding with a poly blend shirt on. Don't ask how I know this.

 Evo I am impressed thought I was the only welder on this boards.... lol

[Fluid]

agree with Dan's first reply.  6 colors minimum yet can easily be done either manually or with an automatic.  Will require high mesh screens.

[squeegee]

I've done sim process on poly garments a few times, mostly on black.  The results have been okay, the customers have been happier than I was with the end result.  The enemy is too much heat, especially with the thinner ink layer, colors tend to die if you're not careful.