The samples arrived - with our image printed on a white garment and a dark garment. The white garment as expected had finer line detail and greater tonal range - whereas the dark garment had more vibrant colors but less detail. In general - both looked pretty good and could easily be sold.
We then did what one of our customers would most likely do with a white t-shirt - and wash it on hot water. To add the "college student" effect - we also threw in the dark garment sample as well to save on quarters.
The dark garment survived the wash/dry cycle fairly well - however immediately after the white garment was washed (and before drying) there was a clearly visible brown stain anywhere even a *drop* of pretreatment was sprayed (dispelling the idea that pretreatment was overapplied).
I contacted US Screen and they were extremely puzzled as to how this could happen. They did state that they had just started pretreating the white shirt samples - however they had no explanation for post wash staining. In the end they decided to send me out another sample.
So I'm curious - we have recently purchased one of these machines - and although it has not arrived yet - the wash tests we did are not exactly leaving me with a really comfortable feeling.
Has anyone had this type of problem? If so - how was it corrected? Is this just an issue with washing new garments with pretreatment for the first few times with dark garments? Or does this happen after any number of washes if white t-jet printed shirts are *ever* mixed with dark garments? We obviously need to know all of these issues before sending shirts to customers - especially since most of those are the aforementioned college kids who do not exactly follow the care/use labels on their clothing.
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
Wow I have never seen anything like that before. Ever. I have been printing on my hm1 for over a year and a half and have never seen that. I do know that there are certain pretreatments, like the one for light shirts, with white ink layer that can leave a stain. But nothing like that. That is very wierd, there has to be something up with the pretreatment they used.
I have printed thousands of shirts and never ever get any kind of staining at all on light shirts. When I do use a pretreatment on lights, I use the fastcolor pretreatment from equipment zone, and it has absolutely no staining at all.
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
Wow I too have never seen anything like that. I own 3 t-jet's and have printed thousands of shirts and I treat every single one of them and have never seen that problem. I also you the Fast Color from US Screen/Equipment Zone and I spray my shirts with 2 full layers of spray to make sure I have the shirt covered and when I wash my samples they come out great with no haze even close to that. I would guess and say they have a faulty pretreat machine to go with their printers lol.
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
It almost looks like what ever pretreatment they use may have been heatpressed into the shirt. Maybe there was some on the top platen and it got cooked into the shirt. There is obviously something on it to make the fibres from the black shirt stick like that.
Have you tried washing it again to see if it washes out?
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
"So I'm curious - we have recently purchased one of these machines - and although it has not arrived yet - the wash tests we did are not exactly leaving me with a really comfortable feeling."
Wow, that is scary. I have been researching the dtg market for a few years now and my boss has been wanting to purchase a dtg printer but I can't get rid of those same uncomfortable feelings that you are having.
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
Alan, I would also caution that the result shown above is not typical. It is indeed a very strange situation. I have talked to so many dtg owners, and seen hundreds if not more results from these machines, including the ones I have printed for the last year and a half, and have never come across a situation like the shirt above.
__________________
Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
I have seen some of the worst prints come from the manufacturers. Its sad but its true. You would think that they would be the best, but unfortunately its not the case. I know if I were selling the machines that is exactly what I would make sure to send, the best I could print. I have seen so many times though where the some of the worst samples I have seen are from the manufactures. I think this has alot to do with the fact, that sometimes those prints are being printed by techs that are not so great with the machines.
__________________
Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
I think they may have used dark pretreat instead of the light. We got similar results when we forgot to switch over one time. It wasn't quite so dark but it was discolored. I'll try to find the sample in the rag bag and post a photo. We have no problems with white/light shirts treated with the proper pretreat.
The dark pretreat is brownish and stickier and doesn't wash out as well in my wash tests. We use a front loader. I toss all our laundry in with test shirts and put a white towel in with a black shirt and it was covered in white fuzz after one wash but the second wash cleaned it up. I would wash it again to see if it removes some the black.
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
That is exactly what I was thinking, is that maybe the used the dark pretreatment instead of the light. I haven't seen a light shirt printed with the dark pretreatment, but I have heard it stains.
__________________
Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
Great to see all the comments! To answer one question the shirt prewash looked great - no visible staining at all.
I have since washed the white shirt two more times - once by itself with the same soap initially used. The second time with oxybleach added. Neither solution was able to remove the stain.
The distributor is scheduled to be here next Tuesday - so he will see it first hand. I'm inclined to go with the fact that perhaps US Screen used the wrong pretreatment?
I agree with the fact that this could not possibly be common results as this forum would be littered with posts regarding this problem and most likely the DTG industry would have addressed the issue (I hope!) if it truly was systemic.
Our printer is scheduled to arrive on Monday - and other then the sample jitters - we are looking forward to working through the bugs over the next few weeks. My first test will be to try and replicate the "brown shirt" problem by pretreating a white shirt with the dark pretreat.
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
I've had the same results before getting the hang of pre-treats. This looks exactly like several of my end results- They burnt/cooked the Fastbright while pressing the pretreat. To me it seams like when it's wet, it burns. After it's dried, it's fine. They pressed to long / to hot. For me it was to long. My press runs hot, so I backed off the pressing: pressing white shirts with short bursts. The color pressing of the inks works just like everybody explaines, but the pre-treat (FastColor only) seems to burn. You could see it a little, but shows up a lot after washing.
I know I'm a noob, but this is what it looks like to me.
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Thomas Florimonte www.ka-blam.com - Digital Printing
Re: Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples
Quote:
Originally Posted by Florimonte
I've had the same results before getting the hang of pre-treats. This looks exactly like several of my end results- They burnt/cooked the Fastbright while pressing the pretreat. To me it seams like when it's wet, it burns. After it's dried, it's fine. They pressed to long / to hot. For me it was to long. My press runs hot, so I backed off the pressing: pressing white shirts with short bursts. The color pressing of the inks works just like everybody explaines, but the pre-treat (FastColor only) seems to burn. You could see it a little, but shows up a lot after washing.
I know I'm a noob, but this is what it looks like to me.
This sounds like the most plausable. It is a press/heat problem. When have you ever seen corners on your pretreatment shirts that look like these. Funny though, the press does!
Pretreatment *POST WASH* Staining Problem with US Screen Samples 
