Discuss the various aspects of direct to garment printing. DTG printers include Brother, T-Jet, Flexi-Jet, DTG Kiosk, Kornit, Mimaki, Tex-Jet and others! Discuss and learn about this up and coming printing technology.
I spray both sides at the same time, lay a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of my heatpress, press one side, turn over press other side It saves time and works great. I then print one side and press, print the other side and press, done
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
I spray both sides at the same time, lay a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of my heatpress, press one side, turn over press other side It saves time and works great. I then print one side and press, print the other side and press, done
Great idea!
Possibly you can advise on my issue. I did a rather large order on white shirts (front and back) a couple of months ago. Yesterday I had a shirt returned. The entire area where I had pretreated and pressed was ever-so-slightly tinted blue after the customer washed it (according to my directions, he says). There was a large area of blue in the design. Interestingly, the left chest was tinted blue only where I had pretreated, in a square about 6x6. I call myself pretreating and pressing all the shirts the same way. I used the same batch of pretreat solution, the same batch of ink, the same time for pressing, etc. What have I missed here? I haven't had any other shirts returned (and there were 150 of them, and this is a small town!). I am, of course, re-printing the shirt; however, I don't want to repeat the problem. Any thoughts??
It sounds like possibly maybe the ink was undercured and bled a little. I have not had any issues with this ever. What pretreatment are you using and what machine? It does sound like it is the ink because I have never heard of a blue tint, yellow yes with the light color pretreat, but never blue. What is your cure time on your shirts?
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
I have a Blazer Express. I really, really like this machine, and plan to write soon in more detail regarding my experiences since I purchased it in April and was trained on it in May.
Now, having said that, the shirt order was my first shirt order after I was "signed off for solo" on my machine. I was pretty overwhelmed for about a week there! I used the FastColor for white shirts. At that time, I cured white shirts for 90 seconds at 325, although now I cure for 150 seconds at 330.
This tint is definitely blue, so I think you are correct when you suspect undercured ink, especially since I am now curing for nearly twice as long. I've seen the yellow tint on pretreated white shirts too, which I attributed mostly to a slight scorch.
I think I'll reprint 2 shirts the way I'm doing now, and wash test one of them before I give the other to my customer. Probably should have done that from the get-go.
Thanks for the reply...any more thoughts are certainly welcome!
Janie
If you are using fast color then the yellowing you have seen is scorching because the fast color doesnt discolor. I was referring to the regular light shirt pretreat that some use. I myself use the fast color and it works great. Also what are you putting on top of your print when you are curing? Are you using the silicone parchment or the teflon sheet?
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
When I pretreat, I put the non-teflon paper down for 12-15 seconds, then remove it for another 10 seconds or so (until the shirt is nice and dry and flat). (Heavy Pressure). Then for curing I use the silicone coated sheet for the entire time (ink never touches the plate).
Ok just as I suspected When you are seeing the yellowing sometimes, its not scorching, its the silicone from the sheet. This will happen if you use it too many times I only use the paper a couple of times as that yellowing will occure if it is used too many times. So for that I would limit how many presses you are doing with each sheet. But yea I think the blue tint is definately from the ink being undercured. Also when curing dont use heavy pressure. For your pretreatment and curing there is no need for heavy pressure at all as it makes the moisture more difficult to escape from the shirt. Use light pressure when both drying pretreat and curing
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
Wow, ok, I'll try that. Of course I don't use silicone sheets for pretreat, only for cure; however, I do tend to use the sheets a few times (until they wrinkle a bit). But that's probably being penny-wise and pound-foolish, if I have a damaged product as a result.
I've always pretreated with heavy pressure, and cured with light pressure. I'll try lessening up the pressure on the pretreat. I'll have to experiment to see what I need to do to get the flattest surface, though. I thought that was what the heavy pressure for pretreating was accomplishing. ??
Thanks again for the help!! I do really like my machine and what it can produce!
(Still learning),
Janie
A good way of making sure you have a smooth surface for printing is to cure for 10 seconds with the quilan parchment, take it off and cure another 10 seconds with nothing on top, that way the platen flatens the fibers really well.
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
We were told by manufacturer to do one at a time so the first side treatment would not get pressed too far into the fibers when doing second side. So we treat, print, repeat. Works for us.
If we have a full design on both sides of a shirt we get what looks like a residue from the printed side transferred to the non-printed side. It happens mostly on reds / oranges but you see what appears to be a normal discoloration associated with red....but it doesn't go away where the image is on the other side of the shirt.
So..we've started putting parchment paper inside the shirt for those colored shirt with 2 full sided designs. Don't like doing it as it is much slower...but faster than haveing to reprint shirts!! LOL
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Pretreatment on both sides 
It saves time and works great. I then print one side and press, print the other side and press, done 
