[Mango Man]

I am having trouble printing on a baby rib knit t- shirt (ring spun). The shirt is black and I am printing a white image on both the front and back. I am using International Coating plastisol ink. The ink cracks or seperates easily and it seems to be caused by the texture in the shirt. I have tried adding a Stretch additive but it did not help much.
Am I trying the impossible or can it be done with the correct technique?

 

[pukingdeserthobo]

do u have a pic of the shirt?

 

[jmlampert23]

i would recommend using a 125 mesh screen print once and flash and print again. also make sure that you are not stretching out the shirt when you load it into the press. you might also want to add more stretch additive, but let it **** for a little bit before you start printing. i print a lot on thermals which have a pattern and get away with just using regular buffalo white ink from wilflex or low bleed white from union. hope that helps

 

[amp267]

i had to do some ribbed tank tops awhile back. i believe i used a good amount of stretch additive, and i also used some soft hand to make it thin enough to get into the ribbed area. it was white ink on black tank tops. print flash print cure. it took me awhile to get the right formula, but they came out pretty good, customer was very satisfied. i used a 156 screen

 

[Mango Man]

Thanks Jamie I'll try that. At least it sounds like it can be done.

 

[Mango Man]

Thanks,
That helps a lot. Sounds like Im close, just need more practice.

 

[Dan K]

The suggestions about spandisol and stretch additive are excellent for plastisol.

Waterbase prints even better on baby rib as it has the ability to fall down into the canyons between the ribs...

 

[Mango Man]

Thanks Dan,

I like the waterbase idea. Would you add stretch additive to that also like the plastisol ink?

 

[Dan K]

You don't need to. Hit it twice, wet on wet, and make sure you have good floods on both strokes and to keep the screen wet, not a sheer flood like with plastisol, but a generous flood where you can see the ink on top of the stencil around the image. Consider trying a 160 mesh screen, 70 duro squeegee and drive the ink down, rather than your regular sheer stroke with plastisol... Definitely test print something other than the shirts you are trying to sell first. I'm not sure if you're printing this on a manual or an auto, this is what we'd do on a manual. Also not sure if you have used waterbase before. If not, you could need water base specific emulsion depending on the size of the run. If it's a big run definitely, if it's a smaller run (maybe less than 48) you could get by with the same emulsion you use for plastisol... You'll need to slow down your dryer a bit and get a good cure out of it too... Hope this helps a little.

Spandisol and stretch additive work well too, but sometimes you need so much it affects the ink opacity. It depends on what your customer wants and you should consider discussing it with them if you choose to try it with water base...