Hello...
I recently finished a print job and after printing I was looking at the quality of the print and found tiny hair like fibers poking thru the white ink...I have heard of spraying a light mist of water and brushing the fibers down...can this work and will the water affect the ink quality or print?
Thank You for any advice
so what your saying is ...im pushing the squeegee down with to much force..should I make the stencil thicker so I print with a thinker ink film?
or just not push down so hard?
you are pushing the ink into the garment and pulling the fibers up. you can either create a thicker stencil, lower mesh count, or print flash print with less pressure. you must also have an off contact of 1/8 if using static frames or less then that if using retentionables.
I've been reading this and other post on this topic for a few days. I keep thinking, the problem might be made worse, depending on what type of yarn the shirt is made of. A shirt made of 100% combed cotton ring spun yarn would seem to me, to be less likely to produce this result.
I've worked a lifetime in yarn manufacturing, so I know the processes and different types of yarn. Rotor spun yarn would be most likely to produce a shirt with hairy fibers exposed. Ring spun yarn has a less hairy surface. Combed cotton, ring spun yarn, produces an even smoother less hairy yarn, by removing the short fibers that would produce the hairy effect.
If it is critical to completely remove or greatly reduce the fiber problem, after optimumizing the printing process, try using a high grade ring spun combed cotton t shirt for a sample.
Ring spun shirts are more likey to cause fibrillation and general problems with shirt fibers sticking up. I love when we have a job with poly moisture wicking fabric because there are no fibers to deal with and the print always looks so clean and bright. I don't like printing on the ring spun shirts because you have less margin for error and even if you have everything perfect, fibrillation can still occur.
Sometimes it isn't an issue of the yarn being rotor spun or ring spun, but an issue of fiber length. In general a t-shirt made of rotor spun yarn isn't labeled as such.
A question for anyone reading, does the fiber problem show up more on cheap shirts?
if its a small run, you can iron each shirt before you print while its loaded on the press. i was desperate one night to get samples out the door and oddly enough it worked. the production guys hated it but it worked
Sometimes it isn't an issue of the yarn being rotor spun or ring spun, but an issue of fiber length. In general a t-shirt made of rotor spun yarn isn't labeled as such.
A question for anyone reading, does the fiber problem show up more on cheap shirts?
It isn't much of a problem for us anymore but I remember it happening on our higher end tees more than the gildan or PC.
if its a small run, you can iron each shirt before you print while its loaded on the press. i was desperate one night to get samples out the door and oddly enough it worked. the production guys hated it but it worked
I wonder if running the shirt under a flash unit before printing would have the same effect.
I wonder if running the shirt under a flash unit before printing would have the same effect.
never tried it. another back door we used was after the print was made, we wound run it though the heat transfer machine with a piece of copy paper. it would end up looking almost like a matte heat transfer. really smooth and soft to the touch. no idea though on how long the feel lasted. it was experimenting more than anything.
Fibers poking thru ink 
