anybody use the Neoflex to print on tri-blend and other fashion shirts

1832 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by njbarbie815, May 9, 2012

sawtooth420

Discussion Starter · May 8, 2012

Thinking about buying a neoflex and was wondering if anybody uses it to print on 50/50 shirts, tri-blends, burnout shirts, etc.? These are the type of garments we want to use. Mostly stuff made by Canvas+Bella, Alternative Apparel, and American Apparel. Would love to hear stories, tips, and details of people printing with the Neoflex on these types of garments, details, and results. What about printing on shoes such as Converse Allstar? Printing on hoodies and pants too? Please open your heart and share your printing experiences with all kinds of unorthodox stuff. I'd love to hear about the versatility of the Neoflex. I know it can print on many types of subtrates.

Also, we screen print too and have a conveyor dryer that would be more preferable to use to cure shirts rather than a heat press. Anybody have tips on this too? It would definitely make life easier. Much love for sharing!

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GADTG

· #2 · May 8, 2012

We print on a ton of American Apparel, and alternative apparel. most of it turns out great... burnouts are hit or miss, if there is no shirt there for the ink to attach to then your design is going to have holes in it,also they are 50/50 I think... however if you design the image to account for this than you can get some cool effects... as far as 50/50... we cant get the white ink to stick and as far as I have heard no one can, so we don't print on dark 50/50 blends, there is a pretreatment out that you can use and get good prints on poly as long as there is no white in the design.

As far as other things to print on, as long as it is at least 80% cotton we get great results: hoodies, jeans, canvas. just takes a little time to test and see what setup (amount of pretreatment/ heat settings) you need.

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23spiderman

· #3 · May 8, 2012

i've printed on the Canvas burnouts and the white stays just fine. the white and the colors aren't as bright as on a cotton shirt, but the print is still there.

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sawtooth420

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 8, 2012

Thanks for your replies guys! Mucho appreciado! I'm a little concerned about printing on dark gray poly-cotton shirts too. I'd hope the print could work on those.

Also, does anybody cure with a conveyor dryer? It'd definitely make life easier just throwing the printed DTG shirts in the dryer and not have to worry about using a heat press for everything.

It'd be awesome if more people chime in? Come on people, don't be shy!

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23spiderman

· #5 · May 9, 2012

unless you have forced air in your dryer, i wouldn't try it. plus you'd have to run them really slow to get fully cured. i have run them through my dryer while screen printing to gel the inks, but i still cured them with the heat press.

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njbarbie815

· #6 · May 9, 2012

i work for a textile mill that manufacturers a lot of poly-cotton blend, tri-blend and burnout garment fabrics, so over time, i've seen the full gamut of decorating techniques. as far as DTG printers go, the neoflex produces some of the best results that i've seen on 100% cotton, even on dark colors, over stripes and on fleece. but, there's a noticeable loss in imprint quality once the blended content exceeds 50%.

most burnout jersey fabrics are fiber blends (usually 50/50) that are basically printed with a special treatment that dissolves or "burns out" one of the fibers (usually the cotton). since the poly content is usually what's left, the best results are achieved with dye sublimation because you don't run into problems with holes in your artwork. i've also seen great screen printing results with plastisol ink with a softener base run through a high mesh count (280+) and on light colors, water-based inks. from my experience, dtg on burnout is hit-or-miss depending on the artwork and % of burnout.

on tri-blend jersey fabrics, you're going to get the most crisp imprint with screen printing. if you go dtg, i'd stick to light colors -- there tends to be more inconsistencies on darker heathers with more light/dark color contrast.

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