[Stitch-Up]

I never expected this to be 'plug & play'

Would like to pick your collective brains - what do you think is causing this, looks like the inks are mixing and not adhering to the white?

This design was printed on a black pre-treated shirt. As this is the 2nd attempt I watch the print process closely. I noticed that as the white ink was being laid down, it looked as if it was printing on a rough surface! I could see twirly threads in all random directions! All very short but quite odd - as if I was printing on a rough sack!

I've no idea really!

 

[mrbigjack50]

Did you check if there were fibers on the head?

 

[Stitch-Up]

Did you check if there were fibers on the head?

Yup, I'd just completed a cleaning maintenance. Thoroughly cleaned the capping station, wiper blade and either side of the printhead. The surface of the printhead looked perfect - I don't touch the printhead itself.

Maybe I need to press the shirt with a heavier pressure before printing. But that's not the major issue here.

 

[JeridHill]

Looks like you possibly printed the color too quickly and the white ink was pooled up too much. Either reduce your white ink lay down for quicker drying of the "pool" of ink, or wait longer before printing the color pass. Is this a small graphic?

 

[FatKat Printz]

I agree with Jerid.. lower the white under base

Are your shirts pretreated (as in you bought pretreated shirts) ? are you pre-pressing for only 10 secs?

How are your humidity levels? what are the levels of your ink?

 

[Stitch-Up]

I tend to agree with your comments on the white ink pooling and the colour being laid to quickly.

I don't think I have control over the timing between the white ink pass and the colours but, I can reduce the white ink.

The print size is 12cms x 13cms and your theories seem correct - as the white ink takes longer to lay (1440dpi) the first part of the graphic has longer to dry than the end of it. The colour lays down quicker at 720dpi so the first part printed has had longer to dry than the last part, hence the worst part is at the end. Does this sound plausible?

I'll try again with less white ink - I used the defaults of the rip software Neorip.

The shirts were pretreated by All American and we used them successfully at the show in Munich.

I did press the shirt for 10 secs before printing but the pressure was light. This would explain the fibres sticking up in the white ink. Humidity is approx 48%.

Lets hopes so anyway.

Thanks guys

 

[FatKat Printz]

Prepress with a Teflon sheet this will help with the flatten out the fibers

Also you need full pressure basically the plate must be touching the shirt/teflon sheet you need to get all the humidity out of the shirt.

does your machine automatically print color right after white w/o pressing load??

 

[Stitch-Up]

Prepress with a Teflon sheet this will help with the flatten out the fibers

Also you need full pressure basically the plate must be touching the shirt/teflon sheet you need to get all the humidity out of the shirt.

does your machine automatically print color right after white w/o pressing load??

Yes, as soon as the white pass has finished, the printer returns and after a few seconds of the printhead shifting about, prints the colour pass. This is how it was printing at the FESPA show but the designs was bigger so more time to dry.

Noted on the pressing, I'll try again in a mo.

Cheers

 

[chobay]

Yes, it looks like your cmyk ink is mixing with the underbase. Contact your vendor about adjusting delay times between passes, or manually overriding. There HAS to be a way to do this..

 

[Stitch-Up]

Yes, it looks like your cmyk ink is mixing with the underbase. Contact your vendor about adjusting delay times between passes, or manually overriding. There HAS to be a way to do this..

Yup, that's the problem.

I reduced the underbase by half and the CMYK by an equal amount. I then printer out the Dolphins. It came out far better than it had previously.

I then printed out the skull. This was a much smaller design and consequently the white ink didn't have much time to dry. Again, the it was the lasr white ink laid down that suffered more than the first laid down.

As you say, there has to be a way of delaying the printing of the colours.

 

[chobay]

Did you check if there were fibers on the head?

This doesn't really have anything to do with the print head, but more with fibrillation of the shirt. Printers use anything from paint rollers, to paint brushes, to plastic pieces to rulers to deal with this problem.

Here is a good thread on the issue and how to deal with fibers sticking up:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/dtg-pretreatment/t52278.html

 

[JeridHill]

Not sure if it matters to you or not, but the dolphin shirt says "printed on our" then "printed with our".

 

[Stitch-Up]

Not sure if it matters to you or not, but the dolphin shirt says "printed on our" then "printed with our".

Are you a proof reader Jerid? I didn't notice that but, it's a design I got from AA just for me to play around with. I haven't got to the point of designing my own yet

Making progress.

Cheers guys

 

[JeridHill]

Strange thing is, I used to proofread all of the time. I had to. I still do it, but it just caught my eye. I figured it was a design that already had some words on it and you deleted them and put your own on. Just thought I'd mention it if you were to hand out samples to people.

As a side note, I wouldn't hand out a printed sample with the name of the machine on it unless you are selling the machine. Otherwise if it gets into the hands of your local competition (which it will), you never know what could happen... Maybe the competition would get a little tougher.

 

[binki]

It could be one or both of two things. As mentioned, white ink pooling. Maybe it has settled and you are getting just a white liquid.

It could also be too much moisture in the shirt. We had the problem of too much moisture when we diluted the pre treatment. Each new pass of ink caused the fibers on the shirt to pop up more and more.

From the pic it looks like a combination of both of those.

 

[mediapress]

Looks like you possibly printed the color too quickly and the white ink was pooled up too much. Either reduce your white ink lay down for quicker drying of the "pool" of ink, or wait longer before printing the color pass. Is this a small graphic?

I agree .. the white ink is not dried yet.
cheers