Printing on Triblend shirts

What type of design are you trying to print? Water base or discharge really isn't going to work unless you are trying to get a vintage look.

Two color design for a gym. Green tri blend purple lettering with the state of west virginia in white. i just don't want it caked on. Someone adviced me to use wilflex's fashion soft to thin the ink out.

I would use a 180 to 200 mesh count screen. If the shirt is light enough you should be able to get a way with 1 hit of each color and not have to underbase. Just double strike the white to get it as bright as you can. I suggest always selling the vintage look on triblend so you can get a way with 1 hit of each color to keep it as soft as you can.

Waterbase or Discharge doesn't work very well on triblends in my opinion. Might want to do a 180-200 mesh. If the shirt is light enough you can get a way with one hit to keep it soft but it is going to have a vintage look. Just double strike the white to get it bright. We always try to sell the vintage look on triblends so we can keep it soft.

Roger that. Thanks for the advice.

Also if the shirt is to dark and you do have to underbase for the purple. Try a 60% halftone under where the purple will lay over the white. That will keep it from being so think and heavy.

When printing on AA triblends, I noticed that you have to watch the curing temp like a hawk.

Try using One Stroke's ELT-S ink. It cures at 280 degrees, and greatly reduces the risk of scorching & shrinking. Plus, the "S" is for stretch - produces a nice hand and a very stretchable print. For vintage look, I'd recommend 1 pass through 230-305. For opaque, I'd PFP through 156 mesh (180-200 if the art doesn't have big filled areas). For a strong-but-not-quite opaque white, the advice to double stroke through 180-200 is good - just did this on a recent orders, with nice results.


As an alternative to ELT-S, you can try International Coatings Low Cure Additive, which you can mix into any ink and drop your cure temp to 300. You can start by adding a curable reducer or fashion base to a good white, then add the LCA, and end up with relatively soft results. I find the ELT-S to be a better solution, however. (I know you didn't ask about lowering the cure temp, but it will eliminate other problems with triblend.)