[Deanna S]

I searched for answers and have not found any yet. I hope you can help me. I am trying to print red lettering on a black shirt with Blazer express. I have pretreated the shirt and pressed it hard (to push down all the fibers) prior to printing. My results are white marks showing through the red ink after pressing (curing). I cure for 200 seconds at 330 degress with really light pressure. Has anyone had this type of experience? I have printed other items and have not experienced this except on solid colors especially red.

 

[Uncle John]

Re: Poor quality when printing red on black

Deanna, you might try just hovering the press over the shirt for about 30 sec before you press /cure it. Just to set the ink.

 

[Deanna S]

Re: Poor quality when printing red on black

Deanna, you might try just hovering the press over the shirt for about 30 sec before you press /cure it. Just to set the ink.

Thanks John, I tried that and still the marks began to show through.

 

[sunnydayz]

Re: Poor quality when printing red on black

what dpi are you printing your white at? is it possible that you are laying down too much white ink?

Let me know how you are printing the white and I will let you know if I can think of something that might help. Also what kind of shirt are you using?

 

[Deanna S]

Re: Poor quality when printing red on black

what dpi are you printing your white at? is it possible that you are laying down too much white ink?

Let me know how you are printing the white and I will let you know if I can think of something that might help. Also what kind of shirt are you using?

I am printing the white at 1440 HS and the color at 1440 X 700 HS. One pass each. I am using a Gildan Ultra 2000. I just tried lowering my DPI to 700HS on the white and it was better but still there. Should I go lower?

 

[sunnydayz]

Re: Poor quality when printing red on black

I would try doing two passes at 720 on your white, sometimes this works much better then one heavy pass. I have had this issue before with having to heavy of a white layer. The shirt should be fine as gildan usually have the least of this problem. Let me know how this works.

 

[vinyl signs]

Re: Poor quality when printing red on black

I was having similar problems with a Kiosk, what I am doing now is hovering the heat press over the printed image for 2.5 minuets then I set the press to light pressure and heat press for another 2.5 minuets. After doing his I have not had the issue and I have also noticed that the wash ability seems to be better!

 

[zhenjie]

Re: Poor quality when printing red on black

Some good advice here. Red/magenta is probably the hardest of the colors to cure on white ink. I had issues with fading and white showing through as well, according to the DTG techs its a common problem.

Many causes

Too much pretreatment = too much white ink, can wash out. Do 2 x 720 passes as Bobbiesays or try and cut back on the pretreatment.
Curing - too much preassure. Use a Nomex pad or make the heat press preassure lower
Curing - flash curing. Hovering for 30seconds does help.

 

[Deanna S]

Re: Poor quality when printing red on black

I would try doing two passes at 720 on your white, sometimes this works much better then one heavy pass. I have had this issue before with having to heavy of a white layer. The shirt should be fine as gildan usually have the least of this problem. Let me know how this works.

Thank you! I have a great deal of improvement. I changed the white to 2 passes at 720 and the color at 1440 X 720. I hoovered the heat over the shirt for about 30 seconds then lightly pressed. It is now acceptable and I finished a couple of shirts. Thank you for your help. My only concern is the vibrancy is just not as great as I would like to see. Any thought?

 

[sunnydayz]

Unfortunately red seems to have the most noticable fade. Maybe since you are doing 200 seconds at 330, I would try 180 seconds. I also do mine at 325 degrees, with the 180 cure time and this works great for me with my particlular heat press. The longer the cure the more fade you will get, but you also want to keep your wash results good. I would try 180 sec. at 325 degrees and do a wash test to see how it holds up.

 

[Deanna S]

Unfortunately red seems to have the most noticable fade. Maybe since you are doing 200 seconds at 330, I would try 180 seconds. I also do mine at 325 degrees, with the 180 cure time and this works great for me with my particlular heat press. The longer the cure the more fade you will get, but you also want to keep your wash results good. I would try 180 sec. at 325 degrees and do a wash test to see how it holds up.

Thanks Bobbie, I appreciate your wealth of knowledge. Deanna