[GrmntPrntr]

Hello,
Recently I Have been experiencing a lot of Gildan 100 cotton Tee's printing too light with Kornit 931's and Brother 541's. This has happened in the past periodically but has been happening very frequently recently. Shirts from a different lot (Haiti, Guatemala etc.) will usually be ok so I'm thinking it has something to do with the manufacturing process's of certain batchs/mills. Over saturating the shirt with pretreatment on the Kornits usually helps. For the Brother printers, using a blank shirt that has been pretreated on the kornit then dried works too(not at option for high production volumes). My question is this: Does anyone have any other tips/advice on solving this issue without changing the Gildan style shirts wasting time?

Dry at 330 degrees on double return belt
I know the shirts used aren't the best quality

 

[cubedecibel]

Wich gildan model are u using?

 

[zoom_monster]

Light weight shirts or shirts with a high content of Polyester content could do this. You could try using a higher ink level or increase saturation of the source file to compensate. You could also try a type of pretreat used for light garments. I have had different results with different batches from different mills.

 

[GrmntPrntr]

Gildan Ultra Cotton Preshrunk.

 

[dazzabling]

Have you changed pretreat?

 

[GrmntPrntr]

Have changed the % of pretreatment, and pressure/serto gauges but haven't changed the type of pretreatment being used if thats what you mean. Using the Kornit supplied fixation agent mixed with H20. Hmmmm I wonder if mixing the Kornit fixation agent with LESS H20 would help at all...Will post results next time we run into a bad box of these troublesome tee's

 

[dazzabling]

I know Kornit has a built in pretreat I am assuming you are doing the proper mainteance and cleaning.

I would make sure that its jetting properly because you know how vital pretreat is. Yes, mills have a lot to do with the end product of the shirt. More times than not pretreat doesn't help.

We saw this the Anvil 6.1oz also, we were getting better bite from the 5.6oz and less than with the 6.1 and the boom it stopped and we went went back to 6.1. Its a gamble especially if aren't printing the same design over and over.

We try all different brands and weights to make sure we can produce a quality print. You can't do much for the shirt but you can impress with the print. If they have to reorder cause the shirt got dull but your print is still good..its rewarding
You produced the print not the shirt.

 

[GrmntPrntr]

I absolutely agree, I was just wondering if anyone out there had come up with one of those "darn it why didn't I think of that" quick and easy solutions. These forums are incredibly valuable for info like that. Thanks to all who supplied any info. Sounds like the less diluted pre-treatment idea isn't going to work, but I'll still give it a try next time we have a problem and post the results.

dazzabling: We do keep up the the spray system maintenance because you are right, if the pressure isn't accurate then the whole system is almost useless. Replace more spray line components than I care to mention.....

 

[Mabuzi]

The only Gildan t-shirts that have polyester are the marle shirts. We have had issues with shirts treated with silicone and some pre-shrunk shirts too.

Thanks for the information