[jessleek]

Hi, we are completely new to the T Shirt printing scene. We had our Viper 2 for about 4 weeks now. We are having massive problems with the machine itself. We feel like there is something wrong with the printhead as we have printed different images as 2 pass and Inline, and the variations in the results are massive. One thing that continuously shows up is that once we have heat pressed the shirt after the print that we have white spots everywhere. We are heat pressing at 170C for 120 seconds. We have the same problem no matter what setting the white is on, we have tried about every setting from weak to strong and get the same results. One other thing we have noticed is that when we put the shirt on the tray all fibers on the shirt are flat. On the 2 pass when the white layer is on, there is a massive amount of fibers sticking up. I can provide pictures if needed. We would appreciate any help we can get. The weird thing is(and that's why I think our printer head is broken) is that the same printer at the Sales office of the company we bought it from, produces image after image perfect prints.

We have to test print every image like 10 times to then give up in the end.

Thanks for any help you can give us.

What I want to achieve in the end is for the company to either replace the head or give us a new machine as like I said our Viper 2 is only 4 weeks old.

One other thing, do you guys test print images and if yes how many times?


Thanks again

Jess

 

[Smalzstein]

I doubt that this is a printhead issue more likely the pretreatment process.

Also there will also be difference on inline printing and two pass printing because in the latter white has time to settle and absorbs CMYK better.

Picturesd would really help to determine the problem. Your description points to "fibrilation".

What kind of paper are you using for curing PT?

Also what kind of shirt? Certain brands don't work with DTG well like Gildan or FOTL.

 

[jessleek]

Hiya,


I don't think it has to do with the pretreat as we tried exactly what we do here at the Companies place and our pre treat Is perfect. And that's why I think there is something wrong with our machine as all images we use are printing perfectly at their place but just not here.

I have attached one pic showing the fibers up after the first pass of a two pass and the second pic shows the white spots I was talking about

What is fibrillation?

Oh and we use a Teflon sheet at the moment, we have also tried brown non stick baking paper.


Thanks for the help

Jess

 

[andreas2000]

Your underbase is puting a lot of white ink down try lowering the amount

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[jessleek]

Your underbase is puting a lot of white ink down try lowering the amount

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Hiya, the settings on that pic are Medium(19). We have tried all the setting from weak to strong and they all look the same. The main problem is that the print itself just seems to raise the fibers. I have attached a pic of what the shirt looks like before I load the tray.

Thanks for the help

Jess

 

[jessleek]

The other thing I cant figure out are the white spots in our prints. I am about ready to scream as every image makes me cringe as I don't know if I have ruined yet another shirt with white spots.

 

[andreas2000]

When pretreating try using heavy pressure with your heat press to dry and use a teflon sheet to lay the fibres down

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[jessleek]

When pretreating try using heavy pressure with your heat press to dry and use a teflon sheet to lay the fibres down

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Hiya

yes we have tried that and the opposite too, it doesn't make a difference to any of it.

Jess

 

[andreas2000]

I have been in the dtg for 3 years now fibers occur mostly because they arent pressed down during the pretreatment proccess it also could be you are not drying the pretreatment or the t shirt it self .try using a good quality ring spun t shirt how old is your pretreatment

 

[jessleek]

I have been in the dtg for 3 years now fibers occur mostly because they arent pressed down during the pretreatment proccess it also could be you are not drying the pretreatment or the t shirt it self .try using a good quality ring spun t shirt how old is your pretreatment

Hiya,

pre treat is brand new and we are using B&C shirts. I have also attached a pic of what the shirt looks like after pressing and directly before printing and they are as flat as flat can be. Also there is a picture of what the fibers look like after the print. And that's just not normal.

Jess

 

[andreas2000]

I use B&C t shirts they are very good to print on were are you located you must be from europe

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[jessleek]

I use B&C t shirts they are very good to print on were are you located you must be from europe

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Hiya yes from the UK.

yes the B&C shirts are good and that's why I think its a problem with the printer.

Jess

 

[andreas2000]

Well zooming in your white underbase you can see fibers sticking out are you sure your pretreatment paper isnt sticking to the t shirt

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[jessleek]

Well zooming in your white underbase you can see fibers sticking out are you sure your pretreatment paper isnt sticking to the t shirt

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Hiya, yes 100% sure. There is another picture which shows the fibers before the print. That's what ticks me off is that they 100% flat before and I end up with what you just zoomed in on.

Jess

 

[Smalzstein]

100% it's not the printhead problem.

What I see the problem might be with quality of PT or shirt or press (cheap presses don't work with DTG well).

What kinf of heat press do you have ? If it's teflon coated try pressing without any teflon o paper.

Your problem is definitely fibrilation (type this word in forums search for more info).

But my gut tells me its the shirt.

 

[jessleek]

Just take a look at the pictures. Its not the shirts or the way we press. Our heat press is not one of these cheap crappy ones we spent a bit of money on it as we had informed ourself about this before. As you can see the fibres of the shirt after heat pressing are dead flat. On an inline the fibres never come up this bad its mainly on a two pass. The problem is consistent across a variety of makes of shirts and quality of them. We have tried FOTL, B&C and others and they all show the same problem as in the pictures! If our pre treat technique wasnt good then we wouldnt be getting even prints, which we do get! Its just the white spots and raised fibres AFTER printing.

 

[jessleek]

And the one thing I keep repeating is that the company we bought the Viper from has got the same machine in the show room and when we work from that we get beautiful tees with no problems what so ever. And that is using everything the same as we do here. I can print an image here and its white spotted. I then take exactly the same shirt to that company and do the same again and get a 100% perfect print. Both machines are on the same settings, same ink, same pre treat, same heat press.

 

[Smalzstein]

So the problem is probably your preatreatment technique.

Search topics with a keyword "fibrilation". This is a common isse, 99% pretreatment related.

As I said before this is not a head problem, that I can assure you 100%.

Are you brushing you PT with a roller or brush before pressing it?

 

[jessleek]

So how come the fibres are all flat before printing? And why does it not happen when I do shirts at that companies place? Don't want to sound rude. Just trying to figure out what's different

 

[jessleek]

Hiya, so after a discussion this morning we are now looking to buy a Wooster brush. Can someone tell me where to buy these in the UK and what the model is called? There are many to choose from like soft tip etc.

Any help appreciated as always.

Thanks again

Jess