Need some sage advice about Safety Green 50/50's

[squeegee]

Thanks again guys for all your ideas, I do appreciate it and really do value your opinions.

[ZooCity]

My experience with flouro blue in particular is that, like any deep, bright blue and even more so w. fluoro is that it needs a lot of transparency to appear fluorescent.  Colin from qcm had a really good analogy for this comparing your ink film to the caribbean ocean.  That water looks so bright, clean and vivid because you're looking at miles of transparency and a little bit of actual color, all lit up by the sun.  I'm not sure how scientifically accurate all that is but it makes good sense.  To that end, it sounds like you did everything right by laying down a serious layer of dye-blocking/absorbing white and double hitting that blue to give it some film depth. 

If it is migration that it's not surprising that the ultra-transparent blue turned to a greenish teal when the "safety green" which is really a bunch of yellow to my eye got into either the base or the top color.  That back print had a lot more coverage area so maybe somebody edged up the dwell time on the flash and/or in the dryer to compensate?

I'd say the test to perform is grab one of the shirts and cut into the back print with an exacto knife then check it out under a loupe.  That white base should be thick enough that you can see if the yellow/green leached up into it. 

My next theory is that, if the fluoro blue was falling over the edge of the ub a little that the yellow got up into it that way.  I've seen that happen but it seems far-fetched that it would migrate all the way into the middle of the print so evenly like that. 

Good luck man, looks like it's just another one of the many joys of being a screen printer.

[drdot]

Definitely dye migration. Even with Poly White, three flashes on a large area is going to open the door to sublimation. Dan is exactly right about the effect of the yellow on the Flo Orange vs Flo Blue.  The reason you didn't get it on the left chest is the area is so much smaller with a lower heat requirement. That does not mean it won't sublimate, it may take longer. Once the migration starts, it will continue over time until it reaches equilibrium. I once had 5000 shirts returned 6 weeks after we printed them because it took that long for the migration to show up. They were 50/50 white on red. Naturally we were aware of the danger of sublimation, used low bleed, reduced dryer temp, etc., but still got whacked.

[Dottonedan]

I once had 5000 shirts returned 6 weeks after we printed them because it took that long for the migration to show up. They were 50/50 white on red. Naturally we were aware of the danger of sublimation, used low bleed, reduced dryer temp, etc., but still got whacked.

5000 units to re-do? Dang. Thats the thing. With something like that, It's better (after you know now), to not do an order like that. Maybe offer up some alternative. Look how flipp'n difficult it is to make sure you get EVERY possible thing to remember to do before running a job like that. You almost need a committee to decide if you can do the job safely.

Then again, those who do handle this with a committee before taking on 5000 units and getting it done well and correct, would probably be getting allot more of them from every other customer with that type of job. You'd be the mass quantity Safety green guy or the 50/50 Red tee/sweat gut.

[squeegee]

So in the end the customer took the shirts at a discount and said "if I were you I wouldn't sell anything with polyester", made me laugh, in my dreams.  Luckily I didn't take a loss on the job and my customer was happy enough and said he'd be back next year.  Definately will pass on the next high coverage, multi-flash design on safety green/orange if they can't be talked into something else that isn't a nightmare.