How To Screen Print White Plastisol Ink On Black Tee Shirts

[Catspit Productions]

Printing white ink on black tee shirts can be challenging. There are basically 2 different ways of doing this and here we are referring to 100% cotton garments only. Here is a check list to getting the best results when printing any high opacity plastisol ink directly onto black or dark colored tee shirts:

1) Use a rigid tightly stretched screen with new mesh.
2) Try to use the most open mesh count for the design’s detail.
3) Use a straight, sharp edged squeegee about 65 or 70 durometer.
4) Use a high quality, high opacity plastisol screen printing ink.
5) Make sure to use some off contact for best results.
6) Print on a tight knit, smooth high quality new tee shirt.

Check out this video which shows the 2 different methods I use to print white ink on black T shirts depending on the job conditions:



Any questions, post them below. Any tips you have to share yourself? Do the same...

[ppdlao]

Nice topic!!! what about fibrilation!? any tips of how to avoid it? or what causes it?

I´m doing the hit & flash technique for 3 times (with 70 durometer squeegee and Heat gun), I achieve a nice opaque white over a black t shirt, but some little fibers show off at the end of printing the last stroke!, and this gets worst with a red t shirt (for ex), can´t make those fibers to vanish below the white ink!

Any advice Jon?

Thnks for this Topic Jon! see you!

[Catspit Productions]

Thanks, glad you like the topic.

Fibrillation - This occurs when you wash a printed garment and the underlying fibers of the shirt come through the print. They appear fuzzy and tend to make the print look faded.

There are a few things that can cause Fibrillation:

1) Over working wet ink on the shirt when flooding and/or stroking.
2) Using low quality knitted garments.
3) Using garments that are soft or fuzzy before printing.
4) A low quality, or low opacity ink will be a problem with this.
5) Printing on pre-laundered garments will cause Fibrillation.
6) Using a screen with low mesh tension and a dull squeegee.
7) Harsh laundering methods will make this happen.

Let me know if that helps you out some, good luck

[ppdlao]

Thnks Jon! of course it helped, a lot!, when you say a "dull squeegee" you mean a wasted one? jejeje google traductor couldn´t find it out for me jajaja, and with this thing of fibrilation, what about, for ex. one time I printed a big silouhette of black ink on a white t shirt, I took a look after stroking and seemed right to me, so I did just one stroke, then I washed this t shirt out and fibrillation started to appear somehow, do you think number of strokes could affect too? suposing avoiding all the possible causes you´ve mentioned but printing just one stroke?


jejeje I don´t know if this is a silly question, so sorry if it is
_thkns for answering Jon, always of big big help!

[ppdlao]

And I think my problem is probably the garments we use, but we haven´t find a best option nearby in town, we´re about to make our very first t shirts order the t shirts are JHK made in Spain, we found a seller here in México in a trip we made to the capital city, so we´ll see, I´ll let you know when trying this new ones, if the fibrillation is still causing me problems...

See you pal!!

[Catspit Productions]

I await your update, good luck

[ppdlao]

I´ll let you know buddy!

[Catspit Productions]

Thnks Jon! of course it helped, a lot!, when you say a "dull squeegee" you mean a wasted one? jejeje google traductor couldn´t find it out for me jajaja, and with this thing of fibrilation, what about, for ex. one time I printed a big silouhette of black ink on a white t shirt, I took a look after stroking and seemed right to me, so I did just one stroke, then I washed this t shirt out and fibrillation started to appear somehow, do you think number of strokes could affect too? suposing avoiding all the possible causes you´ve mentioned but printing just one stroke?


jejeje I don´t know if this is a silly question, so sorry if it is
_thkns for answering Jon, always of big big help!

When I say dull squeege I mean Not a sharpe edge:

http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/sq ... ssure.html

And yes, absolutely, less strokes will cause less fibrillation. You got it!

[Catspit Productions]

And I think my problem is probably the garments we use, but we haven´t find a best option nearby in town, we´re about to make our very first t shirts order the t shirts are JHK made in Spain, we found a seller here in México in a trip we made to the capital city, so we´ll see, I´ll let you know when trying this new ones, if the fibrillation is still causing me problems...

See you pal!!

A higher quality garment with a tighter knit will have less fibrillation issues. Let us know how it works out for you.

[ApeShirt]

I'm curious as to how you know a screen has lost tension without a durometer? You say it's important when printing white on black. About how many times can you print before a screen loses tension? Also, what is the recommended off-contact for white plastisol? I sometimes get a rough look when printing white on black. Is it due to improper off-contact or poor squeegee angle? Or both?