Printing Help

I have been printing for a while and every once in a while when doing a multi color job usually 3+ colors the second color/print the shirt sticks to the screen. This is driving me nuts. I tried raising the off contact, putting more spray adhesive on the platen, and thinning the ink. Any suggestions?

Location: 
United States
JuBilee's picture

repogolfer wrote:
Sounds like your not letting it cool down enough before you print the next color.
Unless your getting ink on your next screen underneath....then your not letting it flash enough.

3 things I would look at.

1. after you flash is it tacky to the touch? But not where the ink will come off on your finger?
2. Is there ink on the bottom of your screen from the previous color?
3 How long are you letting it cool before you print the next color?

Also I would recommend flashing for the least amount of time and at the lowest temp possible...this takes some testing...you don't want to cure the bottom layer completely then lay down another layer of ink...this will cause a lot of issues later on.

BUT it sure sounds like a cool down issue.

Jon

Gotta agree with this one. Let the first layer cool for a few seconds before adding another. It will definitely help in the long run.

You may also want to look at the screen and see what mesh count you are using. When we first got into this business some of the things that we were told were gospel just aren't necessary. You really can get away with using some tighter mesh screen than you may think. Like printing light on dark required a 61 mess screen and that the tightest we would ever need was a 110. NOT AT ALL THE CASE!!! We use 110s for lights on dark and 173s for dark on light for most applications but have a handful of 280s we use every once in a while.

Matt McNeill

JuBilee Screen Printing
& Embroidery
910-673-4240

Celebrating 20+ years in business!!!!!

If you have any questions, feel free to pm, email, or call me.:D

Sounds like your not letting it cool down enough before you print the next color.
Unless your getting ink on your next screen underneath....then your not letting it flash enough.

3 things I would look at.

1. after you flash is it tacky to the touch? But not where the ink will come off on your finger?
2. Is there ink on the bottom of your screen from the previous color?
3 How long are you letting it cool before you print the next color?

Also I would recommend flashing for the least amount of time and at the lowest temp possible...this takes some testing...you don't want to cure the bottom layer completely then lay down another layer of ink...this will cause a lot of issues later on.

BUT it sure sounds like a cool down issue.

Jon