Hello,
Apologies in advance if the answer for this was somewhere else on the forum, I couldn't find it and I am at my wits end with these shirts!
I've got two designs that need to go on these Sport-Tek shirts that seem to be sublimated with a camo pattern. The model of the shirts are ST460 and ST370
Printing Equipment Specs:
Printer: Epson F2100, using Epson DTG inks
Transfer Film: STS brand DTF cold peel film
Hot Melt Powder: DTF Station brand black powder
Printing Software: Kothari Print Pro
Heat Press: Stahls Hotronix Clam Press
Printing Specs:
I start with the DTF profile provided by my vendor. I set the Ink density set to 100 for color and white underbase. The design comes out a little thick but not enough to run. I can hold the film at a 90 degree angle and it doesn't drip outside of the outline of the design. I then apply the powder to the back of the design, shake off the extra, and cure it at 360° F for about 2-3 minutes. I make sure the back of the design looks glossy.
I then take that design and apply it to the shirt at 210° F for about 20 seconds. Let it cool, peel off the carrier, and do a finishing press of 5 seconds.
Even doing all of this, I'm STILL getting dye migration from the camo print that is already on the shirts. Plus, with such low heat settings, the design isn't really sticking properly to the fabric either so they don't really pass the stretch test. I've been calling my vendor's tech support department almost every day for the past 3 weeks and have gotten exactly nowhere. I even tried printing the design with slightly less ink and then adding a thick layer of black to try to put as much dark colored space between the fabric and the colors but no dice. The camo print still seeps through.
I really don't know what else to do at this point and would really appreciate some help. Is there some magical treatment or technique I don't know about for printing DTF on difficult sublimated items?
The black hot melt powder is supposed to be specifically for this purpose but I honestly don't feel a difference between the powders on these particular shirts.
Some photos below:
![Circle Electric blue Pattern Symbol Symmetry]()
This is the best I've been able to achieve with the above settings. This photo was taken a few days after printing. You can see the hexagons from the camo print in the white star as well as the bottom right orange areas. A piece is missing from the top because I did a stretch test and was able to pull off a portion of the design.
![Flower Textile Sleeve T-shirt Petal]()
Here you can see some other tests, with varying degrees of migration but all still migrated. I even tried layering the prints on the flower, basically fully print a thin black layer, then fully print the regular design on top of that, which I wasn't really expecting to work but I was desperate. That didn't work either because the top layer doesn't stick to the bottom layer and can be easily peeled as shown in the petals where black is visible. The one flower that looks slightly ok absolutely failed the stretch test. I was able to peel the entire petal in one piece except for the tiny bit left behind in the image.
Another desperate attempt I did was to run a shirt through a hot water rinse cycle (about 30 min) and high heat dry cycle at home in my washer & dryer thinking I could clear off the excess dye but that didn't work either.
Any and all troubleshooting or creative ideas welcome.
Apologies in advance if the answer for this was somewhere else on the forum, I couldn't find it and I am at my wits end with these shirts!
I've got two designs that need to go on these Sport-Tek shirts that seem to be sublimated with a camo pattern. The model of the shirts are ST460 and ST370
Printing Equipment Specs:
Printer: Epson F2100, using Epson DTG inks
Transfer Film: STS brand DTF cold peel film
Hot Melt Powder: DTF Station brand black powder
Printing Software: Kothari Print Pro
Heat Press: Stahls Hotronix Clam Press
Printing Specs:
I start with the DTF profile provided by my vendor. I set the Ink density set to 100 for color and white underbase. The design comes out a little thick but not enough to run. I can hold the film at a 90 degree angle and it doesn't drip outside of the outline of the design. I then apply the powder to the back of the design, shake off the extra, and cure it at 360° F for about 2-3 minutes. I make sure the back of the design looks glossy.
I then take that design and apply it to the shirt at 210° F for about 20 seconds. Let it cool, peel off the carrier, and do a finishing press of 5 seconds.
Even doing all of this, I'm STILL getting dye migration from the camo print that is already on the shirts. Plus, with such low heat settings, the design isn't really sticking properly to the fabric either so they don't really pass the stretch test. I've been calling my vendor's tech support department almost every day for the past 3 weeks and have gotten exactly nowhere. I even tried printing the design with slightly less ink and then adding a thick layer of black to try to put as much dark colored space between the fabric and the colors but no dice. The camo print still seeps through.
I really don't know what else to do at this point and would really appreciate some help. Is there some magical treatment or technique I don't know about for printing DTF on difficult sublimated items?
The black hot melt powder is supposed to be specifically for this purpose but I honestly don't feel a difference between the powders on these particular shirts.
Some photos below:
This is the best I've been able to achieve with the above settings. This photo was taken a few days after printing. You can see the hexagons from the camo print in the white star as well as the bottom right orange areas. A piece is missing from the top because I did a stretch test and was able to pull off a portion of the design.
Here you can see some other tests, with varying degrees of migration but all still migrated. I even tried layering the prints on the flower, basically fully print a thin black layer, then fully print the regular design on top of that, which I wasn't really expecting to work but I was desperate. That didn't work either because the top layer doesn't stick to the bottom layer and can be easily peeled as shown in the petals where black is visible. The one flower that looks slightly ok absolutely failed the stretch test. I was able to peel the entire petal in one piece except for the tiny bit left behind in the image.
Another desperate attempt I did was to run a shirt through a hot water rinse cycle (about 30 min) and high heat dry cycle at home in my washer & dryer thinking I could clear off the excess dye but that didn't work either.
Any and all troubleshooting or creative ideas welcome.
