[turph]

Hey Friends,

I am having a weird issue with a four color I am running. The color process is white underlay, red, yellow, and black over the top for outline. Attached is a picture of the print in which you can also see the problem, which is that the red ink , and sometimes thew black ink , isn't necessarily cracking, but rather just kind of "rubbing off", almost as if the red ink isn't adhering to the underbase. This makes me think that it is not a dryer issue, but i'm unsure as to what else could be causing this. Any info is greatly appreciated.

 

[red514]

is this after curing or during printing? is the ink flaking off when you rub the print?

 

[turph]

is this after curing or during printing? is the ink flaking off when you rub the print?

it is happening after printing and curing. i think it might be happening after the first wash cycle. a couple customers have came back with botched prints. the ink isnt rubbing off after curing, i tried rubbing it off with my finger, no ink comes off. i try pulling in the image to see if it'll crack/split, it doesn't do that either. so yeah, pretty weird!

 

[jeron]

Are you flashing in between colors? If you are, you're probably over flashing... plastisol won't stick to cured plastisol.. at least that's what I've heard..

Sent from my SGH-M919 using T-Shirt Forums

 

[sben763]

Although Jeron is correct about printing over cured plastisol, I have on several occasions, once to fix a mistake that a customer gave me their wrong phone number and approved the mock up, and a few times to fix other printers mistakes and never a adhesion issue.

 

[dougie54]

Are you using 4 color process ink (CMYK) or regular plasitsol ink? Because if you are using 4 color process ink with a white base that could be the cause of your problem. When you use a white underbase you need to be using regular plasitsol ink with it.

 

[red514]

Are you using 4 color process ink (CMYK) or regular plasitsol ink? Because if you are using 4 color process ink with a white base that could be the cause of your problem. When you use a white underbase you need to be using regular plasitsol ink with it.

not sure i understood your post correctly, are you saying not to use an underbase under 4 colour process inks. what happens? i've never seen any issues with using an under base with 4c process inks (that's how we print 4 c process on darks)

 

[dougie54]

On a dark color shirt I do a simulated 4 color printing with white underbase and do spot printing for the other colors. 4 color process (CMYK) I do on white t-shirts. I have not heard or tried of using a white underbase with 4 color process inks.

 

[red514]

It's fairly common but more difficult to print due to it being easier to have dot gain. i have an old sample i did in front of me, i'll take a pic and post it.

 

[red514]

here's a 4c process print (i did this back in 2005) using an underbase, printed on a black hoody.
the under base is solid under the hand but halftoned under the red glow. i used a spot red for the outter glow as the client wanted a specific red.
halftones done at 55lpi using different angles. used 280mesh for all colours and a 200 for the under base.

 

[dougie54]

Very interesting. What type of white ink do you use for the underbase? I may have to try it this out! Always willing to learn something new!

 

[red514]

it's a lo bleed white ink formulated for under basing, i believe it's the same as Union inks 'premium low bleed white'.
most major ink manufacturers offer a lo bleed white for underbasing.

 

[sben763]

it's a lo bleed white ink formulated for under basing, i believe it's the same as Union inks 'premium low bleed white'.
most major ink manufacturers offer a lo bleed white for underbasing.

Some of the more expensive low bleed inks for under basing are more expensive for a reason. They actual are a formulated without puff additive. All your common low bleed inks seem to use puff in small amounts to combat bleed. Using these when printing CMYK or simulated can cause undesirable results. Although can also help. A few years back I printed a design and it had a horrible moire pattern. Sent though the dryer and the puff broke up the moire enough. I did a CMYK print with Excalibur athletic. The print was beautiful till it went though the dryer and it came out pixilated. So make sure your underbase if using low bleed is labeled for under basing in the products specs. This is usually not on the container but on the manufactures web page or brochure.

 

[Diver86]

Bad inter-coat adhesion due to over-curing underbase.

Usually happens when underbase is low temp cure and top colors are standard temp cure.

 

[ScreenFoo]

Although it's possible the underbase was cured before the process inks went down, you have to watch a whole lot of smoke coming off the flash before that is likely to happen... only time I've managed to pull that off was on fleece, forgetting to turn the massive flash down, and running seriously hot honeycomb platens.