Need ideas how to fix this...

[Screened Gear]

I don't know about the flo orange but I printed some flo pink manually a few weeks ago and it had alot of pigment. It was my first time using the flow colors so maybe they all feel like they do. I mixed in some base and some water just to get it flowing right. I printed it manually because it was only 24 shirts. If I remember correctly I ran them though the dryer twice. Most DC jobs only go though once. 

With high humidity its not just the ink you have to evaporate. The shirt will hold moisture just from the air. This will make it harder to cure that shirt. When I am printing 2 or more DC colors on a shirt with decent coverage I will put my flash on for a few seconds just to help. I'm in Arizona and its dry here most of the time but when the humidity is up from a storm, I know it.

Can you run the shirts one more time and see if they cure? Good Question. Another question is if you have the shirts why have you not tried that? That would have been my first test. From my knowledge, You can not get the shirts to discharge anymore after the agent has expired. I have had inks I mixed still have some active agent after 2 weeks but that was ink in a closed container. Will the ink that was already reacted cure after the shirts have sat? I honestly don't see why not. The binders are still there. Everyone tells you, you have to evaporate all the water out before the shirt can cure so a dried binder must still work. I say try and see.

Either way there is something that did this. The fact that the other colors cured (even some flo colors on the shirts) makes me think the orange is special or it was printed differently.

You will find the answer but you will drive your self nuts until then. It bothers me and its not even my shop.

[TCT]

JON- I have been to Arizona many times, you guys can't even spell humidity!   I have tried a bunch of things with these shirts, put them through the dryer many 3 times... I think I am going to try to s l o w it down to a crawl and try to put them through again.

[Parker 1]

Alex, how do the strips work?  Do they measure temp & duration?  Asking because you could have cool spots in your dryer, causing the ink to discharge but not at temp long enough for the pigment to bind/adhere to the fabric. 

Chris

[3Deep]

I say take the shirts or a handful and let someone else run them thru there dyer and see what you get, it's your dryer or someone might have mixed the ink wrong, I do hope you get this problem solved.

[CCI]

Hi

I've taken some pictures this morning of the returned shirts and a prints using the retuned ink.
In answer to some of the questions we used 155 mesh, 5% activator  and our prints were done on material cut from the returned shirts.

As you can see from the pictures, I feel that the cause of the problem is not enough ink laydown/penetration; whether this is from lack of pressure, squeegee type, snap....or another reason. I don't feel this is anything to do with cure.

I know these pictures differ from ones previously posted and show far less coverage on the customer printed shirt .. I have no explanation for that but this goes a long way in explain why it washes off.

If anyone has any other questions feel free to ask or if you think we should test something else please let me know

Regards
CCI

[TCT]

We used a 80 duro squeegee on the print.

1) What duro did you guys use?
2) Is the pigment load on the D-Flo shirts high?
3) Can you think of any way to salvage the shirts that we have that have not been worn, just sat in the box?

Thanks

[ebscreen]

80's pretty hard for waterbase. We like 60 or 70, usually the former.

What does the inside of the garment look like?

No fix unfortunately.

[CCI]

1) not 100% sure but I believe its 60. I hand print all tests
2) Its up there but nowhere near as high as the amount of pigment typically used in a white for example
3) That's tough...unless you can align each shirt exactly I don't see how you can save this. Maybe print a patch of color over the top and reprint with plastisol  ??

I also think the white has washed of considerably but doesn't show as much because the shirt actually discharges to quite a white color ( see our original post with a d-base premium print)

[CCI]

The inside of the returned shirts shows no sign of the discharge or print which is another indication of possible lack of pressure. My test prints all show a reasonable amount of the print on the inside; I don't feel like I'm pressing very hard when I print.
I've attached a picture from the inside of my test print and the returned shirt before washing. The area directly to the right of my print is the inside area of the returned shirt.

The picture looks more discharged than real life if anyone's thinking we have too much ink going through the shirt

[Homer]

Alex - I have the tests printing right now too....I'll follow up after a few wash cycles...

[dirkdiggler]

80 durometer seems WAY to hard and won't put down enough ink.  we use 60, but what do I know?

[Colin]

I just ran a 3 color using 55/90/55.  I will typically use 65/90/65's for my waterbase/discharge printing.

[jvanick]

We use 60/90/60s on just about every job except for highly detailed halftones.

[TCT]

we use 60, but what do I know?

Clearly more than me!

This whole thing has me thrown in a crazy way. We have printed thousands of shirts the way we printed these(not saying how we did it is right) but never had a issue till these 3 jobs.... I totally understand the reasoning of the poor penetration and I'm not arguing it, it just has me so confused! I am a guy that like it when 2+2=4, there is no gray area left. This situation is adding up to more of a 3.8

[TCT]

SORRY!!! Now I really look like a fool! It is a 70 duro squeegee we used! Everyone questioning it had me check again, green is 70!

Anyone have a rock I can hide under?