FF / Fighting Fibrillation

[inkstain]

Hey guys,
Just printed some AA Tri-Blends and had an issue of fibrillation.
I'm printing on an auto.
I ended up having to do my underbase white 3 strokes at 50psi to get a smooth print, then flash 5 seconds then print the color on top.

Is that typical to do for Tri blends?  Probably not, but looking for some help.
What do you guys do?
Thanks

[Frog]

I always thought that blends, at least 50/50, were much less prone to fibrillation than 100%cotton, with ringspuns like Beefies being the worst.

[ebscreen]

Triblends are a whole different beast Andy.

Nappy. Just plain nappy.

The High Solids Acrylics currently being developed and tested are aimed at this fabric
among others.

TonyPep here uses a discharge underbase on these, and though it won't fully discharge,
apparently it's enough for top color plastisols.

Here we use low mesh (125 or so) for underbase and double stroke. Pay very close attention
to your flash times as well.

[Frog]

Is this "nappyness" the same as fibrillation?
In my book, fibrillation is when "hairs" poke through during the first wash, giving the ink a lighter appearance.

[JBLUE]

Smoothing screen guys. Works wonders on tri blends.

[ZooCity]

To get a smooth print on these you need to "bridge and build" with your ub.  The first pass is critical, it needs to matt down all the ringspun fuzzies and it must fill in the natural peaks and valleys of the heathered fabric, prepping the base for the top colors to finish the deal.  Similar concept to face coating a screen in a way.

We have success with 135/48 or 150/48 coated 2/1 or 2/2 round.  Hard fill and light pressure on that stroke with a sharp blade.

Keep that pressure absolutely minimal on the UB screen, make the fill do the work and the squeegee just shears over that stencil, dropping out the ink.  Once that's down, it's all up to the mesh and EOM, provided you have a good LB white in there.  We use WFX Epic Quick but there is a similar version of this ink from probably every company.  I'm not an auto printer but I think the exact same concepts apply here.  The last thing you want to do is drive ink down into this fabric, it gets you nowhere and the stiffened hand of your print will be extra noticeable on such a soft, easy draping fabric when it's worn.  You can up that pressure on the top colors if the base is done right and, as mentioned, flashed correctly. 

They do discharge surprisingly well but I don't think this solves the nappyness issue for you.  Discharge will help with reducing the appearance of fibrilation by way of dying some of the fibers that might poke up out of the print but if you are aiming for a smooth top surface this won't help to that end very much at all.  Maybe discharge + a very heavy deposit of one of those HSA type wb inks up top would do it, couldn't say as nobody wants to sell me any HSA for some reason.

I could def see a smoothing screen helping out for this. 

Best approach is for a semi-transparent look right from the artwork on these, which is not only easier to print but looks great. The above is my best recommendation for a smooth, opaque print with a larger image area.   End game here with plastisol in this exact scenario is going to be thick but smooth and soft, rubbery feeling imprint. 

[tonypep]

The reason that tri-blends print so rough is that, at least in my experience, no matter which plastisol UB you use (ink and screen combination) the white literally "tugs" at the fabric, pulling the fibers away from the garment. Is it fibrillation? Technically no but who cares? They're a pain alright. And yes for me a DC UB is totally the way to go as it is a more absorbant process. I also agree witht the comment about transparent over lay colors wacked out with a fashion or Chino base.

[Action1]

I am compelled to comment here knowing that this will sound like a plug for our company. However - I do think that that we have a solution to this issue if you are using an auto - which you did reference.

Instead of using 5 strokes, use one stroke with a double stroke squeegee and then flash it. Following the flash - use our new Roller Squeegee. The roller squeegee comes with a piece of Teflon film that you fix to the contact side of a screen. The roller squeegee and the Teflon completely alleviate this issue. You could print on burlap with one stroke using this process.

We have received many numerous comments on this new item for use with smoothing.

We are thinking of renaming it -the  smoothuponya squeegee. Happy Tuesday.