I have asked you all a question or two in the past and you were always great with answering my questions...I thought I would shoot this one at you. We are trying to print on some (let's say Lemon) American Apparel shirts with black ink. Our problem is the ink is so rough feeling on the shirt. It feels thick and stiff. We just found about detackifing (? if that is what its called) the ink, to help make the ink thinner - we thought that might help...but it didn't unless we just didn't do it enough. What we are thinking now is it must be our screen mesh size. What would you suggest using so we don't feel the ink, but it still somewhat covers the shirt and is not too transparent? I also thought maybe we are curing it too hot. Right now its going through at about 340 -365. My other thought is that it’s just the brand of ink we are using.
I would appreciate any thoughts you might have for me.
I'd recommend water-based inks and/or discharge printing techniques. We use this method exclusively on our tees. It's a little harder to find a good printer for this type of screen printing, but the quality is far superior to plastisol inks. You can't feel it at all.
There are some special techniques printers use to achieve a softer hand, even when using plastisol. I personally don't know what they are called, but you should be able to find something on the internet. Sales reps for the ink companies know a LOT about this stuff.
Thank you for your reply. I went on and read about Water Based Inks. I wasn't really familiar with what they were used for. I don't think I am interested in getting into Water Based Printing. We have a small shop - we don't do Yard Signs or any kind of printing like that - mostly just shirts, fleece...basic stuff like that using plastisol inks. We really stay pretty busy as it is, and I guess I am just scared to venture out into something new that will take alot of time. I was just thinking maybe there is a way to make the Plastisol inks a little lighter feel on the shirts. Thanks though for your suggestion, we might have to try using some in the future to get the kind of feel we would like.
Last edited by victorywear; February 15th, 2008 at 10:31 AM.
Sounds like you need to change your printing technique.
If your printing manually you should go with a 230 mesh.
On an auto,305 should give you a nice soft hand.
Check that your screens are tight and you have good off contact.
Make sure the ink is stirred well and creamy.
Your dryer temp is a little high also.310-320F is good.
Over-curing textile inks can also cause problems with adhesion and wearability. Temperatures in excess of 350F can result in a loss of elasticity in the cured ink. When the plasticizer-resin chemical interface is destroyed by excessive heat, the ink can crack or fade when washed. When an underbase is over-cured and then cured again in the dryer after the overprint colors are added, �fisheyes� in the print may occur when the underbase is literally boiled. Frequently, the overprinted ink is blamed for the pock-marked surface, but the problem is actually rooted in the over-curing of the underbase ink.
Rough Ink Feel On Shirt 
